Pyro Peril
by prwtfalcon6
Summary: It's all hands on deck now as the Danger Rangers try to find and rescue two kids from a past mission from a two man team of arsonists and try to stop them.
1. Chapter 1: Taken

**Chapter 1**

* * *

**Armonton Playground Park**

**Chicago, Illinois**

**12:46 PM**

Laughter and voices of children were heard as they played on a playground, the skyline of Downtown Chicago looming in the background with trees covering the rest of said skyline behind the partly cloudy blue summer sky.

The playground was a mixture of red, blue, yellow, and grey. It has two slides, one of them being tube slides that were about ten feet in height had a slight curve at the top before going to straight down. The other being the same design and about half in size. The slides were both straight and both had a slight cover over the top of it, the playgrounds had grey decks that acted like steps with yellow bars going up vertical and positioned with multiple horizontal bars on the top of them, making a wall. The steps were split apart and led up to two tower-like structures, both having a red cone-shaped roof, grey decks that were octagonal in shape, both had two red walls with one obviously missing to lead up to grey stairs, four in total with the steps being slightly widened in size that led up to the red right slide with the other side having blue walls with one missing in the middle like on the other side which led up to the stairs which were the same number and the same size which led up to the blue slides.

"I win!" A voice exclaimed amongst the playing children, that voice belonged to none other than Junior Danger Ranger Derek, a fox with brown fur, blue eyes, wearing a small red knit cap, a light blue t-shirt with light yellow sleeves and blue shorts as he had finished sliding down the slide with his best friend, Scott, a golden-furred bear with blue eyes, wearing teal-colored baseball cap with a red button and visor, a turquoise v-neck t-shirt with red sleeves, dark blue pants and white sneakers following close behind down said slide.

"Alright. Way to go, Derek!" Scott exclaimed, congratulating the fox on winning the game they were playing.

"Thanks, dude." Derek replied as the two fist-bumped. As they did, they heard something that caught their attention. The two turned to what the sounds were and saw a fire truck racing down the street with its sirens wailing.

As the two watched the fire truck go by, Derek then looked down at his wrist, which had his SAVO Unit and continued to look at it even after the fire truck had already gone by and the sirens faded out.

Scott turned his head after the fire truck had already passed by to see Derek still staring at his SAVO Unit.

"Derek, you okay?" Scott asked, taking concern with Derek staring at his SAVO Unit, thinking something might be wrong.

"Hm? Oh. Y-yeah, I'm fine. I was just thinking about what we-... rather, I did." Derek replied, Scott snapping him back into reality when asking the fox if he was okay.

"You mean the false alarm and the fire?" Scott asked in which Derek replied by shaking his head yes.

"Yeah, I can't believe that me calling a false alarm and setting my old apartment on fire led up to us meeting the Danger Rangers, me becoming a Junior Danger Ranger and earning this." Derek answered, seemingly having feelings of lament as he looked back at his SAVO Unit, reminding himself of what he did that made the chain of events that led him and Scott meeting the Danger Rangers, although albeit under less than stellar circumstances, learning their lesson from what happened and learning about Fire Safety while teaching other kids to deter them from committing the same crime that caused all this, and finally, Derek becoming a Junior Danger Ranger.

"Well, we did learn our lesson and we promised we'd never do that again." Scott added.

"Yeah. Wait, I just realized something. Why did you get in trouble? As I can remember, I was the one who called the false alarm, I was the one who set the matches on fire and I was the one who set the fireworks off that caused the fire. So why did you get the six months of community service? You didn't do anything wrong." Derek responded, realizing that Scott didn't actually do anything that would warrant him to get the six months they received after what happened with the fireworks and the revelation that Derek had called a false alarm, asking his best friend why he would take the punishment for something he didn't do.

"Derek, I didn't want you to go through this alone, that's what friends do. I guess I felt like me not trying hard enough to stop you from calling the false alarm and setting the fireworks were the reasons why." Scott replied, giving his reasons why he deserved the punishment he and Derek got.

"You really did that… all for me?" Derek asked, trying to process or clarify the fact that had been presented to him from Scott.

"Derek, I'm your best friend. I would-..." Scott started to say before he suddenly stopped at another voice interrupting him.

"Derek! Scott!" The voice said, calling out to the two, causing them both to look in the direction of said voice.

The voice came from an adult fox with brown fur wearing a light blue shirt and dark blue pants, waving to the two from behind a bench who was being sat on by adult bear with dark brown-colored fur, wearing glasses with purple-tinted lenses, a white shirt, tan pants and brown shoes, Both of the boys recognized them as they ran over to them and approach them.

"Hey, Dad. Mr. Bearonhart. You wanted to see us?" Derek asked, revealing the fox to be his dad and the bear to be Mr. Bearonhart.

"Yes, you two. I just wanted to tell you boys that we'll be leaving soon because we've got some storms coming across later today and I do not want to be the one to explain to your mother how you got sick from being in the rain or getting struck by lightning." Derek's dad answered, explaining to the two boys why they wanted to see them.

"That goes for you too, Scott. Me and Derek's father just want you both to be safe and not to do anything dangerous like set off fireworks again." Mr. Bearonhart added.

"Don't worry, Dad. We won't, we promised to never do that again." Scott replied, revealing Mr. Bearonhart was his father, meaning that Bearonhart is Scott's surname.

"That's good, boys. Maybe after we leave, we'll get you two a treat before we get home, how does that sound?" Derek's Dad said and asked the two boys about getting a treat before they got home.

"Yeah! Thanks, Dad." Derek answered, thanking his dad for the suggestion.

"Thank you, Mr. Crevan." Scott added, thanking Derek's dad as well as revealing Derek's Dad's surname to be Crevan, meaning Crevan was Derek's surname as well.

"You're welcome, you two. Now run along." Mr. Crevan replied to the two boys before telling them to run along back to the playground, and so they did as Mr. Crevan and Mr. Bearonhart started to converse.

"Can you believe how much has changed, Nicholas?" Mr. Bearonhart asked Mr. Crevan, revealing Mr. Crevan's first name to be Nicholas.

"What do you mean, Joel?" Nicholas asked Mr. Bearonhart, trying to clarify what he meant while also revealing his first name to be Joel.

"I mean everything that led up to your son becoming a Junior Danger Ranger." Joel replied, which gave Nicholas an expression of realization written on his face.

"Oh, yeah. That. Listen, Joel, I'm really sorry for what happened. I know I've apologized numerous times, but I want you to know that I am really sorry for what happened. I-..." Nicholas responded, apologizing profusely to Joel as the bear gave a slight chuckle.

"Nicholas, you've apologized enough already, I know you didn't mean for this to happen and I'm pretty sure your son has too. Plus, you and your wife and a new house and a little sister for Derek too." Joel replied, stopping the fox from rambling on by apologizing profusely.

"I know, I just feel like part of it's my fault, I should have taught him about Fire Safety, then the whole fire wouldn't have happened." Nicholas said, lamenting about how he should have done something before Derek set off the fireworks that lead to said fire.

"I know, Nicholas. But we can't change the past, what we can do is change the present and the future." Joel responded as they continued to talk while their boys returned playing on the playground.

Derek had just slid down the slide when as he got up, beeping sounds came from his SAVO Unit, which caught his attention and he looked at it to see it flashing.

"DANGER ALERT! DANGER ALERT!" SAVO exclaimed as Derek moved away from the slide, to make sure no one bumped into him after sliding down.

"What's up, SAVO?" Derek asked the AI, asking for the details of the Danger Alert.

"My scanners have indicated an explosive hazard in the nearby area, do be cautious, Junior Ranger Derek." SAVO answered in which, after telling Derek and finishing with the details, the fox child turned and looked towards the surrounding area for the explosive hazard, but to no avail before looking back at SAVO with a confused look on his face as Scott came over to him.

"Derek, is something wrong?" Scott asked, confused at what was going on.

"SAVO just said there's an explosive hazard nearby, but I don't see anything. SAVO, can you-...?" Derek answered, answering Scott's question before turning his attention to SAVO and was about to ask him something before the boys heard something drop on the ground which made their ears perk up, they turned around to see some type of small canister that was black.

Both Nicholas and Joel heard the sound of the canister dropping and looked into the direction of the boys to see the canister.

Nicholas' eyes widened as well as the boys before he exclaimed, "Boys! Run!" before turning towards everyone else and only was able to let out a small wording of what he was going to exclaim as before he turned, the boys started to run towards their dads before suddenly, the canister exploded with the sound of a loud '_BOOM!_'.

The entire playground was engulfed in black smoke and screaming kids were heard a few seconds after the canister went off. The boys were knocked off their feet and were knocked unconscious for a few seconds as ringing filled their ears and Nicholas were knocked off his feet as well as he covered his muzzle and his eyes shut to block the smoke, Joel did the same thing.

Derek opened his eyes as the ringing in his ears continued and he got up to his knees and looked up, seeing nothing but black smoke and the flashing of his SAVO Unit. He also noticed that he wasn't coughing, so the smoke must be non-toxic. The ringing soon dissipated from his hearing as the ringing was switched out with sounds of children screaming and parents calling out for their child, including his.

"Derek! Derek!" Nicholas exclaimed, calling out his sons' name as he and Joel ran through the smokescreen of black darkness.

"Dad! Scott!" Derek exclaimed as he started crawling on his hands and knees, looking for his Dad, Scott or Mr. Bearonhart.

"Derek!" Scott exclaimed, his voice sounding like it was from a distance, that caught Derek's attention as he continued to crawl around in search.

"Scott?! Scott, where are you?!" Derek yelled as he suddenly heard the sound of another loud '_BOOM!_'. Anxiety started to hit Derek full force as he was about to call out again before he suddenly bumped into something and then feeling something black grab his right arm and pulled him up by said arm above the smoke which started to clear where he was, Derek's eyes went wide as he saw what, or rather who grabbed him.

Who grabbed him was someone, possibly male based on the physique in all-black attire, black hoodie, black ski mask that only had eye openings, black pants, black shoes, and black gloves. It was like whoever grabbed him was trying to blend with the smoke.

Derek started to struggle to get free of the grip of the unknown masked person.

"Let me-! Let me go! SAVO, call the P-! Hey! Give that back! That doesn't belong to you!" Derek exclaimed as he tried to pry the fingers of the masked person in an attempt to let him go before trying to get SAVO to contact the police before the masked person grabbed Derek's SAVO Unit with his free hand and pulled it off his wrist.

The smoke had cleared in the area the two were in, so that Derek could see the bottom as the masked person dropped the SAVO Unit and it landed on the ground, Derek watched with widened eyes of shock and horror as the masked person took his foot and crushed the SAVO Unit beneath it, making the sound of '_CRUNCH!_' as he did so.

The masked person moved it his foot to reveal the SAVO Unit with a blank cracked screen with a small hole and parts of it scattered in the surrounding small area it was in.

Derek was in disbelief, the SAVO Unit that he had worked hard to earn for was on the ground and broken. Tears started to fill his eyes before the sound of a recognizable voice caught his attention away from what had happened.

"Let me go! Let me go, now!" The voice screamed as Derek saw another masked person, also possibly male but with a different physique, wearing the same clothes the other ones wearing as he grabbed Scott, who was clearly struggling to break free of the other one's grip.

"Scott!" Derek exclaimed, catching the attention of the bear who saw the fox in the grip of the first masked person.

"Derek!" Scott exclaimed as the boys continued to try and break free of the grip of the two masked people.

"Derek! Scott!" The voice of Nicholas called out, catching the attention of the boys who turned to see both their dad's as the smoke had already cleared away enough to see them as the two started to run towards the boys and the masked people.

"Dad!" Both of the boys exclaimed to their respective fathers as the first masked person suddenly went over to the second one and gave Derek to him who in turn, was keeping a tight grip on Scott with one arm and was now doing the same thing with Derek with the other arm as the first masked person released his grip on Derek's arm and started to approach the two approaching dads before putting his hand on the left side of his waist and grab something that was blending in with the black clothing he was wearing.

What he pulled out was a combat knife that was entirely black, the only noticeable thing about it was the ridges or its shape on the blade. The masked person then pointed the knife at the two dads and started to swing at them which made the two dads stop and back up to try and not get injured from the knife being swung at them.

Joel tried to get past the person by running around him, but the masked person was fast on his feet as he made Joel stop his attempt and continue to swing, but it also gave Nicholas the opportunity to pass the masked person and get to the boys, and so he took it.

Nicholas ran passed the first masked person who was preoccupied with trying to keep Joel back, but he quickly turned around to see Nicholas approaching the second masked person and the boys, who had happy expressions on their faces at the thought of being rescued.

The masked person suddenly turned and sprinted after Nicholas, Derek's expression changed to fear as the masked person was nearing closer to his dad and showed no signs of stopping.

"Dad! Watch out!" Derek exclaimed, which caused Nicholas to look behind him and see the masked person racing towards him, knife in hand.

Nicholas continued to run towards the second masked person and the boys, but the first masked person suddenly caught up to him and ran in front of him before putting Nicholas in a hug-like hold and suddenly plunged the knife into Nicholas with the sound of '_SHIK!_', deafening the surroundings.

Everything was nearly silent except for the pained gasps coming from Nicholas as a red stain appeared on his shirt in the stomach area, where the masked person stabbed him.

Derek's eyes widened in shock as tears started to fill his eyes and even started to stream down his face, sorrow and disbelief were engulfing him as he was seeing the color from Nicholas started to dim like the life was being sucked out of him.

Shock and disbelief were the expressions of Scott and Joel

The masked person quickly pulled the knife out of Nicholas, the blade stained with adult fox's blood as he started to stagger and he was having his hand on the wound, trying to put pressure on it possibly. Joel tried to run over to him, but the first person noticed this and quickly got in front of the adult bear and proceeded to swing the bloody knife at him, keeping him from reaching Nicholas as the adult fox continued to stagger before falling to his knees and reality kicked back in.

"DAD!" Derek screamed as he suddenly opened his muzzle and bit the arm of the second person, causing him to scream in pain, releasing a masculine voice tone, so the second person was male as Derek managed to break free of the second person's grip and ran over to Nicholas as he fell to the ground on his back, blood staining his shirt and a hole where the knife went through.

Derek fell to his knees once he approached Nicholas.

"Dad! You have to get up! Dad, please! Don't die, Dad! Please!" Derek cried as tears streamed down his face and he tried to lift his father up before suddenly the first person suddenly grabbed him by the arm and put it behind his back before pinning the fox to the ground and pulling out something from his pocket, it was black zip-tie handcuffs as he put them on Derek's wrist and tightened them as the fox continued to struggle.

Derek then caught something on the corner of his eye, he looked and saw what had caught his attention, he realized that what caught his eye was the second booming sound he had heard earlier, the playground was on fire.

Flames were shooting out of the black smoke that still covered the playground, making it look like the whole thing was on fire and the smoke from said fire seem to blend within the smoke from the canister.

"D-...D-...Derek…" Nicholas softly said as his free hand, the one that wasn't trying to pressurize the wound extended out in reaching towards Derek as the first person picked him up from the ground and held him in a grip with his right arm.

Derek continued to struggle as the first person continued to hold his grip on the fox, barely flinching at the kicks to him being done by Derek in order to let him go.

"NO! NO! LET ME GO! DAD!" Derek exclaimed as he kept struggling and kicking the first person.

Derek then tried to bite the first person as he had done to the second one, but as he was opening his muzzle, he suddenly felt it shut and saw the first person with a cloth in his free hand, covering the fox's nose and mouth.

Derek started to feel tired and nauseous as his eyes lidded and his struggling seemed to slow down as he seemed to be slipping into unconsciousness, he tried to keep his eyes open as he could hear Scott calling out to him, but his eyes did close and his struggling and kicking stopped, he was unconscious.

"Derek! Wake up, man! You gotta wake up! Yo-...MMPH!" Scott exclaimed, trying to get his friend to wake up before suddenly, he felt the cloth gag his nose and mouth and saw that the second person, who was holding him was the one who put the cloth over his nose and mouth.

Scott started to feel lightheaded, tired, and nauseous, just like Derek had as the struggling was slowing down. He saw Joel started to run towards him and seeing the first person, who was still holding Derek was waving the still-bloodied knife at him, keeping the adult bear back from reaching his son as Scott also slipped into unconsciousness.

The first person stopped swinging as he held the knife up to the unconscious Derek's throat to keep Joel back as the second person suddenly grabbed another black canister from the back his belt, pulled the pin with both hands as he held Scott in his arms before throwing it, it landed near where Nicholas was, who's eyes were slowly starting to close with tears seemingly streamed already down his face before detonating and releasing another black plume of smoke.

Joel covered his eyes as the plume of smoke hit him as the two masked people ran with Scott and Derek in their arms out of the smoke, Joel uncovered his eyes and saw they were gone, he then kicked the canister away from Nicholas and saw they were running towards a white van nearby when the smoke cleared up a bit, he ran out of the smoke to try and catch them, but it was too late as the two got into the van after putting Derek and Scott in there first, in the empty back and closed the door, the two people got into the van's front seats and closed the door. Joel tried to catch up to them, but the van suddenly sped away, but not before Joel managed to catch the license plate number, _J0L7JY_.

He ran back to Nicholas, who has slipped into unconsciousness as he checked his pulse to make sure the adult fox was alive and started pressurizing the wound with his hand to try and stop Nicholas from bleeding out as he heard sirens start to approach.

"Hang in there, Nick. Hang in there." Joel said as the sirens approached closer.

**Later at 1:04 PM**

Joel watched the ambulance with an Elk paramedic pressurizing Nicholas' wound drive away with its sirens blaring after the doors were closed, the adult bear telling the police about what happened quickly after.

As the ambulance left, the fire on the playground had been quickly extinguished and fire investigators, who had just arrived were determining what caused it, but as the fire investigators were about to start, one firefighter got the attention from the broken SAVO Unit.

"It can't be." The firefighter said, revealing he's male by his voice as he picked up the SAVO Unit and its pieces which also caught the attention of one of the fire investigators, a male Shiba Inu.

"What's going on, Chief Daniels?" The Shiba Inu asked the firefighter now known as Chief Daniels, and he was right. Chief Daniels was a chief as he wore a white firefighter helmet which has the words _Battalion Chief_ on it and the middle section on the back of the turnout gear, also on his helmet were the words _Battalion 5_ in a square section and below that was the word Chicago.

On the back of the turnout gear were the words exempting _Battalion Chief_ in the middle section were the words _Chicago Fire Dept_ at the top section and on the bottom section was the word, _Daniels_.

Chief Daniels was a dog with brown fur, tan fur making up his eyebrows and mustache, and dark brown fur making up his ears.

"It's one of those SAVO watches the Danger Rangers have." Chief Daniels answered as the Shiba Inu looked at the broken SAVO Unit.

"I don't recall hearing the Danger Rangers being in Chicago." The Shiba Inu said, giving an expression of confusion.

"Neither do I, I would have at least heard that they were coming." Chief Daniels replied, confused as well.

"And I think there about six...maybe?...members of the Danger Rangers, and I don't think whoever did the kidnapping would be able to take on all six of them." The Shiba Inu added.

"Right...wait, kidnapping?" Chief Daniels started to say before he suddenly realized what the Shiba Inu said, which caught his attention.

"Yeah, I overheard some of the officers say something about kidnapping and that someone was stabbed, I'm surprised you didn't know about until now. You must be getting Alzheimer's or something if you're forgetting things easily." The Shiba Inu replied.

"Hikari, two things. One, I can assure you I do not have Alzheimer's. And two, I was kind of busy focusing on the fire then my surroundings." Chief Daniels said to the Shiba Inu whose name or surname was revealed to be Hikari.

"Well, the fire has been put out and the police are right over there." Hikari replied, gesturing towards the police nearby, Chief Daniels turned towards the direction Hikari gestured towards and once he saw Joel, it clicked.

The broken SAVO unit, Joel being there, the kidnapping he just found out about, it all seemed to correlate together.

"If there's no evidence of the Danger Rangers being here and as Hikari said, the six of them wouldn't have been captured that easily. And if Mr. Bearonhart is here, plus the kidnapping I somehow did not find out about beforehand, then the only person I know of who would wear this would be… oh my god." Chief Daniels thought as he put everything together and realized who the SAVO unit belonged to as his expression changed to dread and horror.

"I know who this belongs to." Chief Daniels said, realizing who the SAVO unit belonged to as he suddenly hurried over towards the officer who was a female german shepherd and wore the CPD uniform which consisted of a light blue t-shirt with a patch of the flag for the city of Chicago on her right sleeve and the octagonal patch of the Chicago Police with the bold blue letters spelling out the words _CHICAGO_ and _POLICE_. It also consisted of a black bulletproof vest over her shirt, black pants, black shoes and on her head was the black peaked cap with the Sillitoe Tartan checkerboard wrap and the silver cap badge.

He approached the two, which the officer and Joel took notice as they saw the broken SAVO unit.

"Chief Daniels, what's going on?" The Officer asked the Chief and he gave his response.

"Officer, I know who this belongs to… and I think the CPD is going to need to activate the Amber Alert."

* * *

**DRHQ**

**Keystone, South Dakota**

**2:55 PM**

Sully was walking down the hallway, going to do something when suddenly he stopped as he heard something.

What the sea lion heard was humming, more specifically, a female voice humming which Sully recognized as he smiled and started walking towards the direction of where the voice was coming from.

Sully kept on going until he approached the recreation room and peeked inside, seeing Kitty on a chair near the bookcase and looking at a book with a brown cover on it, Sully noticed that the book was wider than a normal-sized one, so it wasn't a reading book, but he quickly turned his attention when she starts to sing.

"_Way down upon the Suwannee River, far, far away. There's where my heart is turning ever, there's where the old folks stay. All up and down the whole creation, Sadly I roam. Still longing for my childhood station, and for the old folks at home._"

To Sully, her voice was angelic and he started blushing a bit as Kitty looked up away from the book and saw Sully peeking inside, who became red with embarrassment as Kitty giggled before speaking to him.

"Hey, Sully." Kitty said as Sully was up at the doorway of the recreation room's library.

"Hey, Kitty. What are you reading?" Sully responded as he walked up to her and asked her what she was reading.

"I'm not reading, Sully. This is my family Photo Album. I just wanted to take a little trip down memory lane. Look, there's my baby picture." Kitty replied, explaining what she was looking at and showing Sully a picture of baby her in a long-sleeved white bodysuit and in her crib, sleeping and sucking her thumb.

"Aww. Who knew that a cute little baby could grow up to be a beautiful woman." Sully said, complementing the picture and Kitty being beautiful, in which the cat gave a smile as she blushed at Sully's compliment.

"And I got a stud of a boyfriend to match." Kitty replied, complimenting Sully as a stud which made the sea lion blush again before smiling and started to chuckle.

"Stud, huh? Well, then… you want this stud, Ranger Kitty?" Sully responded, taking off his shirt and hanging it over his shoulder, revealing his slight muscular chest and teasing Kitty.

"You know I do, you dork." Kitty said as she closed the book and put it aside before getting up and approached Sully and Kitty closed her eyes and started to lean in for a kiss with Sully following suit as their lips were about to lock before suddenly…

"DANGER ALERT! DANGER ALERT!" SAVO exclaimed as the alarm sounded, stopping the two from locking lips.

"Killjoy." Sully muttered in irritation as Kitty smiled before she leaned in and locked her lips with Sully for a few seconds before she stopped and quickly started heading towards the recreational room itself.

"Come on, Sully." Kitty said as she ran into the rec room itself, Sully in a bit of shock before quickly recuperating and following after, putting his shirt back on as he did so.

"DANGER ALERT! DANGER ALERT!" SAVO continued to exclaim as the words _DANGER ALERT_ appeared on his monitor screen in bold red letters that were behind a yellow background and the screen was flashing.

"What is it, SAVO?" Kitty asked the AI as her and the other Rangers got prepared for what the Danger Alert was about.

"My scanners had indicated an explosive device in Chicago, in the same vicinity as Junior Danger Ranger Derek. I issued a Danger Alert to him, but shortly thereafter, my compu-scan detected multiple 911 calls from the very same location and Junior Ranger Derek's signal had disappeared shortly after the first few calls came. " SAVO replied. The Rangers gasped at what SAVO said, the Junior Rangers were kids after all, so concern for their well-being was not unfounded.

"SAVO, can you try and get access to the signal?" Burt asked the AI.

"I have tried already, Ranger Burt. As I said, the signal had disa-... Rangers, I have just detected an Emergency Alert System activation in Chicago." SAVO answered as he started to explain that he already tried to track the signal again, but to no avail before three beeps sounded, interrupting the AI and telling the Rangers about the EAS activation he had just detected.

"Let's hear it, SAVO." Sully said to the AI, asking him to play the EAS activation for the Rangers.

And so, he did.

The sounding of the EAS's three tones known as Specific Area Message Encoding or SAME headers that sounds like it comes from a dial-up modem blared out before the Attention Tone was heard right after the three tones sounded, the Rangers awaited for the voiced announcement detailing the nature of the alert as suddenly they flinched at a new sound they didn't expect, causing to startle them a bit in surprise.

What they heard sounded like the pneumatic wail of a civil defense siren, it was short as it only lasted a couple of seconds before the voice spoke.

"_This is an activation of the Amber Alert system requested by the Chicago Police Department, Chicago Police is investigating the abduction of two children from Armonton Playground park, Derek Creavan is a-..._"

Once the Rangers heard Derek's name, the shock hit them hard like an oncoming train… then came the dread and fear as they listened voice described Derek, from his age, to his fur color, to what clothing he was last seen wearing, which were all correct.

The Rangers' fears were confirmed, Derek had been abducted and is in immediate danger.

A look of shock, dread, and worry came upon the Rangers' faces before the voice said something that caught their attention the same way it did when they heard Derek's name.

"_...Scott Bearonheart is a-..._"

Once they heard Scott's name, the shock hit them again, although not as hard because the voice did say that two children were abducted, they just didn't know who the second child was until the voice said Scott's name as the voice described him, being all correct… which meant that both Derek and Scott have been abducted and both were in immediate danger.

The Rangers continued to listen as the voice said where the boys were abducted from and the voice said who abducted the two, which the Rangers paid close attention to.

"_...The two boys were abducted by two unknown individuals, the two were seen wearing all black clothing and their heads being covered by black ski masks, one of the individuals also stabbed Derek's father, Nicholas Creavan during the act and are considered armed and dangerous by Chicago Police. The two are driving a white conversion full-size van with license plate number J0L7JY. If you have any information regarding the Amber Alert or see the two boys or the van, do not approach, call the Chicago Police immediately at-..."_

As the announcement read the number for the Chicago Police, the Rangers' mouths were agape, their eyes widened in shock, dread and anxiety filled within them and their expressions were stricken with horror as reality set back in. The three End Of Message or EOM tones blared once the voice had stopped talking, the tones signifying the end of the Emergency Alert.

Once the reality set back in, the Rangers were still in a state of shock, fear, and dread. Derek and Scott, two boys they met under less than stellar circumstances, learned their lesson in fire safety, one even becoming a Junior Danger Ranger had been abducted and is now in extreme danger.

"Dis… just… got... personal!" Squeaky said, an angry glare coming upon his face, his teeth clenching as he spoke, and rage filling within his voice, the Rangers knew what Squeaky was feeling.

"Sully? What are we going to do?" Burble asked, asking their leader what their game plan was.

Sully took a few seconds to think about what they were going to do before coming to a conclusion.

"Rangers, we're heading to Chicago. SAVO, contact Chicago PD and tell them we're coming to help." Sully answered, coming to his conclusion and asking SAVO to contact Chicago PD.

"Right away, Ranger Sully." SAVO replied, granting Sully's request.

"Come on, Rangers." Sully said as he started heading to the control room with the other Rangers following suit as they got onto the Hovercraft and took off from Mt. Rushmore to Chicago.

Sully having a determined look on his face as the Hovercraft flew through the sky.

**Chapter 2, Coming soon**

**Prwtfalcon6**

**Review**


	2. Chapter 2: Burn

**Chapter 2**

The Amber Alert. Created after the abduction and murder of a child of the same name, it's used by law enforcement across the nation and was even adopted by other countries as a means to find a child who was abducted and is in extreme danger of death or bodily harm.

Once an Amber Alert has been activated, it is sent out to the news outlets and radio in the area in an effort for the Populus in said area to be on the lookout for the missing child or children as well as the perpetrator or perpetrators.

Depending on when the kidnapping took place, law enforcement are in a race against the clock to find the perpetrator or perpetrators because not every Amber Alert has a happy ending.

It is unknown to law enforcement how or even if the abductor or abductors would act against the abductee, for all they know, the abductor could be a pedophile looking for children to fornicate with or a serial killer going after kids with any type of motive. Whatever the reason may be, law enforcement has to act fast to find the kidnappers and the child or children who were taken.

For the Chicago Police, the search began when the Amber Alert was first activated. CPD putting all the resources it has to find Derek and Scott as well as the masked perpetrators as well getting the message to the populus to be on the lookout.

The Danger Rangers were also joining the search as the Hovercraft arrived in Chicago, the Rangers being able to see the skyline and the dark cloudy sky that was its background. Due to Derek being a Junior Danger Ranger which technically made Derek one of their own, it was out of the question to not join the search efforts and try and help to find him and Scott. The Rangers knew that not all Amber Alerts get a happy ending and they don't want anything to happen to the boys, fatal or not.

As the Rangers were looking for a place to land the hovercraft since they would probably be here for quite a while, beeps went off from their SAVO Units and the screens started to flash.

"SAVO, what is it?" Sully asked the AI, asking what the beeps were for as SAVO appeared on the screen of the units.

"I have just received a call coming from a phone nearby and is contacting the Danger Rangers, from what I can gather, the caller is from the Federal Bureau of Investigation." SAVO answered the Danger Rangers, revealing someone from the FBI was contacting them.

"De FBI? Why are dey callin' us? Are dey involved, or what? I don't remembuh de FBI bein' involved in abducshun cases." Squeaky asked, a bit confused at why the FBI would be calling them.

"I don't know, Squeaky. But if they are involved in this, we'll take all the extra help we can get. SAVO, can you patch the caller through?" Sully responded to Squeaky's question before asking SAVO to patch the caller through to them.

"That I can do, Ranger Sully. Hold on a moment… The caller has been patched through, Ranger Sully." SAVO replied to Sully's request and patching the caller through to them.

"Thanks, SAVO. This is Ranger Sully of the Danger Rangers, who am I speaking with?" Sully said, thanking SAVO before turning to the caller and introducing himself as well as asking for the caller's identity.

"Hello, Ranger Sully. I am Special Agent Hunter Stripes with the FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team. Me and a team of about five agents including myself are joining this investigation with the Chicago Police to find those two boys and their captors. I heard you were coming to Chicago to help with the case. Honestly, we can take all the help we can get to find them." The voice, now revealed to be a male named Hunter Stripes replied to Sully, expressing his gratitude at the Rangers for assistance with the case.

The FBI's Child Abduction Rapid Deployment or CARD team was created as a way for FBI agents to help local authorities within their respective states with child abduction cases, usually involving an Amber Alert and there might be a chance that the Amber Alert could go interstate.

The relationship between federal law enforcement and the Danger Rangers tend to be rare, but they don't butt heads at each other to see who has the most jurisdiction over certain cases or who has power over the other like the stereotype says and seen on procedural shows. Both sides respect each other and not tend to get involved in each other's affairs unless they have to.

Deputy Marshal Nicholas Goldioso is kind of a rare technicality to that relationship since Burble knew who Nicholas was because of their childhoods and Sully's brother, Sean could be considered to be also under the rare technicality, but since the USCG is a branch of the US armed forces even though the Coast Guard is part of the Department of Homeland Security and only becomes part of the US Navy during wartime, which hasn't really happened since Vietnam, it opens a whole new can of worms of technicalities.

"Thank you, Agent Stripes. As soon as we find a place to land, we'll meet you and your team as well as the CPD at wherever you'll be and help in the search." Sully said to Hunter, thanking him.

"Actually, Ranger Sully, me and my team were planning on you and the other Rangers meeting us. I know that big plane of yours can't really land on the roads of Chicago and even if you could, I doubt you'd all want to impede traffic or catch any multitude of attention. So, we're waiting for you in this empty field on the outskirts of the city that's big enough for your big jet to land in, we'll transport you all to the precinct we're working at and you can officially join the search." Hunter responded, telling Sully that he and his team had a place for the Hovercraft to land in and they would be meeting them there before escorting the Rangers to the precinct they were working out of.

"We're on our way, Agent Stripes. SAVO, triangulate your vector scan and pinpoint to where Agent Stripes is calling from." Sully said, telling Hunter they are on their way before ending the call and turning to SAVO, asking the AI to pinpoint the location of where Hunter was calling from, which SAVO did as the screen came up on the Hovercraft's monitor, showing a grid and a red beacon flashing within the grid, pinpointing to a location.

"I have pinpointed the coordinates of where Agent Stripes was calling from, he is correct, it is in fact, an empty field on the outskirts of Chicago. The coordinates have already been put in, Ranger Sully." SAVO replied, confirming Sully and the Rangers where Hunter was calling from and the coordinates to where the field was.

"Thanks, SAVO." Sully said, thanking the AI has he turned the wheel, turning the Hovercraft in the direction of where the field is and it headed in that direction.

Later on, the Hovercraft approached where the coordinates was pointing to and the Rangers saw three black SUVs with five people looking up at them next to said SUVs which were on the outermost ring of a circular grassy field that was big enough for the Hovercraft, so the Rangers could land.

The Hovercraft hovered over the field and lowered down to the ground, landing perfectly in front of the five individuals and the four black SUVs, the ramp set down and the Rangers walked down said ramp, as a tiger wearing a white shirt, black tie and open blazer, black pants and black shoes who came up to the Rangers as they walked off the ramp, disembarking the hovercraft.

"Hello, Danger Rangers. It's finally nice to finally meet you all in person. I wish it would have been under much better circumstances." The tiger said to them as he pulled out a wallet from his blazer and opened it up, revealing it to be an ID card and badge, an FBI badge. It was gold, shaped like a shield with the design of an eagle holding it with its talons at the top, the words _FEDERAL BUREAU OF INVESTIGATION_ at the top of the shield and the words _DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE_ at the bottom with the letters _U_ and _S_ in between with the image of Lady Justice, holding her trademark scale and sword with a blindfold covering her eyes, she was also human, the badge being the only few things that still has human faces or humans on them, the Rangers' headquarters AKA Mount Rushmore being an example. Along with the badge was an ID card was a picture of the tiger with the FBI initials and the seal of the agency, below that was a signature of the words Hunter Stripes on an underline and next to the words Special Agent, the tiger was Hunter Stripes as he put the wallet back into his blazer and reached his hand out, the Rangers recognizing Hunter's voice who they had talked to earlier.

"Thanks, Agent Stripes. I like to you meet Ranger Kitty, Ranger Burble, Ranger Burt, Ranger Squeaky and Ranger Gabriela." Sully replied, taking Hunter's hand and they shook before Sully introduced the other Rangers to Hunter as the other four agents, a Malinois dog, a maned fox, a jaguar, and an arctic wolf, all wearing different clothing than each other were introduced by Hunter once Sully finished introducing the other Rangers.

"Nice to meet you all, Rangers. I like you all to meet Agent Rick Malines, Agent Jose Lobo, Agent Christopher Spots and Agent Everett Lowell." Hunter said, introducing the other agents to the Rangers in which the two sides shook hands with one another and extending their greetings as well to each side.

Once they had all finished with the greetings, Hunter spoke up.

"I wish we could stay and chat, but we have important matters to attend to." Hunter said, reminding everyone that they don't have time to chat and that the important matter at hand was of the utmost importance.

"You're right, Agent Stripes. Come on, Rangers." Sully replied, the Rangers and the agents all started to head to the vehicles. The Rangers splitting into two per vehicle, although Hunter did notice Squeaky and GB, noting their sizes compared to the other Rangers.

"Ranger Sully, you guys are the safety experts, right?" Hunter asked as Sully opened the driver's side rear door.

"Yeah, why?" Sully responded, asking why Hunter was asking him the question.

"Well, considering their…size, no offense, you two." Hunter started to say before turning to Squeaky and GB and preemptively apologizing for possibly offending the two Rangers.

"It's okay, Agent Stripes. We understand what your trying to say, because we promote safety and considering our size, we would have to be riding facing the rear, but there are no seats that would be facing the rear in any of the vehicles. Isn't that what you're trying to say?" Gabriela replied, not taking offense and understanding what Hunter was trying to say.

"Yeah. That's what I was trying to say." Hunter responded, answering GB's question on what Hunter was trying to say.

"We already have that covered, Burt?" GB said before turning to Burt, the turtle knowing what she was talking about as he shook his head in understandment before said head and arms suddenly retreated inside his shell and rummaging sounds was heard, Squeaky realizing also what Gabriela wanted Burt to do and his expression changed to irritation as he knew what Burt was going to get caused the mouse irritation.

"Now, where did I put them? No…Not that…Nope...N-Aha!" Burt muttered to himself as the rummaging sounds continued, the agents' expressions were of confusion and bewilderment as the rummaging continued before Burt's exclamation, indicating he found what he was looking for was emitted from the turtle's shell.

Burt's head and arms popped back out of his shell and in his hands was a dark grey box that was about the size of a toolbox, the box had black lines on them and at the top was a red button, indicating that the box could be opened due to the button since it didn't look like there were any hinges or locks on it and it would open in some convoluted way.

The Agents were still reeling from what Burt had done as Rick spoke up.

"H-...How? How is that even possible? How can that fit i-?" he started to say, questioning how, considering the box's size, was Burt able to fit inside his shell and how he was able to get it out before he stopped as Sully put his hand on his shoulder, the malinois dog turning his head towards the sea lion.

"I'd rather not. You'd fall asleep if you heard the explanation." Sully replied to Rick, telling the FBI Agent not to pursue it due to the explanation being repetitious and could cause him to fall asleep.

"I'll...take your word for it, Ranger Sully." Rick responded as Burt started to approach the vehicle.

Gabriela turned to Squeaky and noticed the irritated look written on his face and kind of understood what he was feeling, animals his and her sizes, even though being adults would have to be riding in vehicles facing the rear and it does feel sometimes like being treated like an infant.

GB didn't let that affect her that much and would not let that define her in any way, Squeaky on the other hand however… Squeaky wasn't exactly the one to take it in stride like Gabriela would and tends to use his "Big Voice" sometimes to get people to pay attention to him.

Burt put the box inside one of the vehicles and pressed the button once he put it down on the middle back seat, making it open up to reveal two small grey seats with seatbelts that are facing the rear as once the top opened up, a transparent covering came over the seats like a roof, the sides opened as well to reveal seat belt latches that Burt grabbed and put into the buckle, a clicking sound as the latch connected to the buckle.

Squeaky quietly sighed in frustration and muttered "Dis is so embarrassin'!" under his breath, showing his disdain with the portable seats that Burt had just put in one of the vehicles as Burble approached the door to the vehicle where the box was put and extended his arm to the seat, helping Squeaky down as the mouse walked down Burble's arm and onto the seat with GB flying into the vehicle and landing next to Squeaky.

The two walked towards the box as the covering opened up, indicating it had a sensor that opened up the covering as the two Danger Rangers approached it, Squeaky and GB got into the seats and put on the seatbelts which were sash ones, GB taking notice to them which Burt also took notice of her reaction.

"Oh, yeah. I implemented sash seat belts instead of the lap seat belts. Don't worry, it's legal." Burt said, responding to GB's notice to the seatbelt and assuring the agents that it was legal.

"Squeaky, look." GB said, turning to Squeaky who's expression didn't really change as he stared at the seat belt for about a few seconds before giving his response to Gabriela.

"Dis doesn't really help, GB. It's still embarrassin'." Squeaky responded as the covering went back over them and stopped about halfway at their knees as Burt moved out of the way of the door and Burble closed it.

The other Rangers and Agents got into the respective vehicles, Sully and Kitty with Hunter and Rick, Burble and Burt with Jose and Christopher, and Squeaky and GB with Everett. The vehicles driving away from the field and onto the road.

Later on, as the vehicles reached the city and drove down the roads, Kitty turned to see Sully staring out of the window, seemingly looking a bit forlorn as the sea lion just stared out the window, watching everything go by, almost like something was bothering him. Kitty deciding to get his attention.

"Sully?"

"H-huh? W-What?"

Sully broke out of his trance and turned away from the window towards Kitty who had a slightly worried expression written on her face.

"Are you okay? You've been quiet for a while now." she asked, asking him if he was okay and took notice of him being quiet for quite a while.

"I-...uh...I...I wa-...I'm f-..." Sully stammered out, trying to think up a response, but none came to mind as the sea lion let out a sigh of defeat, he knew he couldn't lie to Kitty.

"I'm fine, Kitty. It's just…It's has to-..." Sully started to say as the sea lion tried to come up with what to say before he stopped, looking down to see Kitty's hand on his.

"Sully, If something's bothering you, you can talk to someone. You can talk to me, although I'm not really a psychologist, but it might help." she replied, telling him that if something is bothering him, he can talk to someone, even her although she isn't a psychologist, but it might help.

"You're right. But I think later would be a better time to talk about this, I don't really want to burden the FBI with personal problems." Sully responded to Kitty.

"It's okay, Ranger Sully. But Ranger Kitty is right, if something is bothering you, you should talk to someone, I prefer an actual psychologist to talk to, but talking with family and friends could also help." Hunter said, voicing the same conclusion as Kitty as Sully replied back to Hunter.

"Thanks, Agent Stripes. I'll keep that in mind."

"No problem." Hunter said, responding to the thanks from Sully.

Meanwhile in the vehicle with Squeaky, GB, and Everett. Gabriela looked to see Squeaky staring down at his seatbelt whilst tightening his grip on the sash, it looked like he was going to rip it in half, but the expression on his face never showed that as the hummingbird spoke up.

"Squeaky?"

"Hm?" the mouse replied, diverting his attention away from the seatbelt and onto GB as his grip loosened on the sash as Gabriela responded.

"What's wrong? You've been gripping on your seatbelt, I feel like you're going to rip it in half." she asked, asking what was wrong and telling the mouse about her noticing him gripping the seatbelt and felt like he was going to rip it in half.

"Nuttin''s wrong, GB." Squeaky said quickly, as if he was trying to divert his attention away from the topic at hand. Gabriela's expression turned to worryment as she responded to Squeaky avoiding the topic with his quick response.

"Squeaky, por favor." she replied in Spanish, a worrying tone in her voice as Squeaky looked into her eyes with a worried and concerned look in her eyes for a couple of minutes. The mouse then took a deep breath and let out an exhale in defeat, caving in and replying to the hummingbird's worried and concerning plea.

"It...It has tuh do wit'...dis." he responded, referring to the portable rear-facing seat Burt had made him and GB were sitting in.

"What do you mean, Squeaky? You ride in the rear on the Hovercraft and you don't have a problem with it." Gabriela asked, asking the mouse what he meant and noting that he has no problem with it when he rides in the rear in the hovercraft.

"GB, dat's different. I have learned tuh tolerate me ridin' in a rear seat in de Hovercraft, I know youse guys well enough tuh not go aftuh me about it." Squeaky answered, pointing out to GB that riding in the Hovercraft is different and he had learned to tolerate it, also pointing out that he knows the other Rangers well enough that they wouldn't go after him about it, indicating to the hummingbird that going after him meant teasing him or bullying him about it.

"Squeaky…I-...I didn't know that you felt that way. Is it because of something that happened in your past is why you're so sensitive about this?" she said, sympathizing with his feelings and asking the mouse if something that happened in his past was to blame for his sensitivity about the topic at hand.

Squeaky shook his head yes.

"Yeah, but I'd radder not tawhk about it right now, we have tuh focus on findin' Derek and Scott and de mooks who took dem." he said after shaking his head, but switching the topic to focus on the task they came for, finding Derek and Scott and the perpetrators who kidnapped them.

"You're right. We should focus on the task at hand...oh, I pray the boys will be unharmed." Gabriela replied, agreeing with Squeaky that they should focus more at the task at hand, also praying for Derek and Scott will be unharmed.

"I hope so too, GB. I hope so, too." Squeaky responded, sharing the same sentiments as GB as he put his hand on hers.

"You both are right, we have to find them fast. Every second counts." Everett said, also sharing the same sentiments.

Also meanwhile, in the vehicle carrying Burble, Burt, Jose and Christopher, Burt took notice to the polar bear's silence.

"Burble?" he said, getting Burble's attention and having the polar bear Danger Ranger turn his head towards him.

"Hm? Oh, Burt. What is it?" Burble responded, asking Burt what he needed.

"Are you okay? You've been quiet for a bit, I just want to know if something's on your mind." Burt replied, answering Burble's question and explaining why he got his attention, asking the polar bear if he was okay.

"Everything's fine, it's just…I've been thinking." he answered, telling Burt that everything was fine, but he was just thinking about something.

"What are you thinking about?" Burt asked, asking Burble the nature of what he was talking about.

"I've been thinking about Derek and Scott, I'm just asking myself why. Why were they taken by those kidnappers? What was the reason?" Burble explained, showing concern for the two boys and asking himself the motive in which the kidnappers' reasoning for taking them.

"I do not know the motive of the perpetrators who kidnapped Scott and Derek, but we'll get those answers when we find the two kidnappers and the boys. Although...we should hurry in finding them, the longer the kidnappers have them, the greater chance of them being-…" Burt replied, assuring Burble that they would get answers once they found the boys and the kidnappers, but also saying that they should hurry in finding the boys and was about to say what would happen if they didn't find them fast enough, but stopped himself from saying it.

"...of being killed or seriously injured." Burble said, finishing Burt's sentence after the turtle stopped himself from saying it, Burt shook his head slowly in agreement.

For about a few seconds, everything was silent except for the sound of the cars driving down the road as Burble took a breath and continued his and Burt's conversation.

"I just-...I can't imagine what the boys are going through right now. I can't even imagine what the parents are going through, I mean somebody kidnapping your child, that's a parent's worst nightmare." he said, reflecting his worries for the two boys and pointing out that a child being kidnapped is every parent's worst nightmare.

"I cannot imagine it either, Burble. But we have to be hopeful that with not only the Chicago Police, the FBI and us, we'll be able to find them. You have to be hopeful." Burt replied, reassuring Burble to be hopeful with not only them, but the Chicago Police and the FBI working on the case, they will able to find the two boys.

"You're right, but...I've also been thinking...ever since what happened in San Diego, I thought of something like that happening to someone I know or we know, and this just made my fears worse. What if it was Luke? Or Danny? What if it was both of them? What if it was Rusty?...What if it was one of you guys?" he responded, also expressing worrying concern and fears that something like what happened to not only Scott and Derek, but also what happened in San Diego, fearing that the same thing could happen to Luke or Danny, whom he met when he was invited by the Barksters, the couple who raised him before he was adopted to an emergency and safety event being held there and rescued the two boys after they went out to the lake during a windstorm. He also feared the same thing could happen to Rusty Ringtail or even one of the other Rangers as Burt replied to his worrying.

"Burble, you can't constantly worry about something bad happening, it doesn't help anything. But you can talk to somebody, it will, at the very least help. You can talk to me and the other Rangers, you could even talk to the Barksters or your family about your concerns. You have been in contact with them recently, have you?" he replied, the turtle giving his reply to Burble, telling him that there is no reason for him to worry constantly and he can talk to either the Rangers, the Barksters or Burble's adopted family before the turtle asked if Burble had been in contact with either the Barksters or his adopted family recently.

The polar bear let out a small sigh before responding to Burt's question.

"Not really...I-...It's...It's just I-...I haven't contacted either of them recently, I haven't talked with my adoptive parents for quite a while now, and the Barksters...I haven't really talked with them since we went to the Be-Ready-For-Any-Emergency jamboree at the o-...at Pine Lake and rescued Luke and Danny, plus I don't really want to burden them with my problems, they already have their hands full, why would I add my concerns onto the pile?" he answered, revealing that Burble hadn't made contact with his adoptive parents and haven't done so in an unknown amount of time, and he also expressed that he didn't want to burden the Barksters with his concerns with them already taking care of orphans there.

"Burble, you should contact them. Talking with either one of them might help ease your concerns and worries." Burt said, encouraging the polar bear to get in contact with them and talking to either will help ease his concerns and worries.

"He is right, Ranger Burble. As my Grandmama used to say, "Family will always love you and be there for you." You should get into contact with yours." Jose said as the maned fox agreed with Burt's sentiments.

"You're both right, I should talk to someone. I shouldn't worry constantly about something bad happening. Thanks, Burt. Thanks, Agent Lobo" Burble said, agreeing with Burt's and Jose's statements and thanking them for it.

"You're welcome, Burble." Burt replied.

"You're welcome, Ranger Burble." Jose replied as well to Burble as the vehicles continued down Chicago's streets.

After a few minutes, the cars arrived at the Chicago Police station the FBI was operating with the CPD, the building was brick as most older buildings in Chicago tend to be, on a tan section of the wall were the words in silver lettering which said Chicago Police Department.

The FBI agents and the Danger Rangers got out of the vehicles, Burt deciding to leave the portable rear-facing seats in the vehicle that Squeaky and GB were riding in, the two now on Burble's shoulders as the Rangers and the Agents walked into the police station.

**Meanwhile at an unknown location…**

"...-ake-...-p-..."

Groggily groans came as his eyelids started to open up, it was hard to keep them from opening up entirely due to him being so weak.

What he could see in front of him was the concrete ground and it seemed that he was sitting on a chair, he then noticed that he couldn't feel his arms, so he tried to move them, noticing that the movement was limited on his arms.

He slowly started to lift his head up, even though his vision was a bit blurry, he could make out that a person was standing in front of him as he heard the person speak once again.

"I said, wake up!"

A loud '_WHACK!_' came right after with the sudden stinging pain of what felt like a slap hit across his face, jerking him awake, his eyes now wide awake with bags under them as he could see the person in front of him was wearing a black mask, black gloves, and all-black clothing. The only thing that wasn't black was his blue eyes which emitted anger and seething rage, and the brown fur in between the eyes.

As soon as he saw him, his eyes widened in fear as his thoughts flashbacked to the smoke grenade, his father being stabbed and falling to the ground right in front of him, the bloodstains forming upon his father's shirt, and his mouth and nose being covered with a cloth and the darkness enveloping his eyes.

Tears started forming in his eyes and quickly started to stream down his face as quiet shudders escaped his mouth, those shudders turned to whimpers of fright, a sniffle came as the whimpers turned into small cries as teardrops hit the concrete ground.

"Derek!"

His ears perked up at the sound of his name as if it was right next to him, he slowly turned his head to see Scott, fully awake and tied to a chair with his wrist and ankles tied to it with zip ties with the chair's legs bolted down into the floor as the person suddenly yelled at the bear.

"Shut up! You don't get to speak!"

The person walked over to Scott and suddenly punched him in the face, the bear cub exclaimed out in excruciating pain, he coughed as blood started to drip from his nose and drops hit the concrete ground, tears had formed in his tightly shut eyes when the punch happened and once he opened them, they streamed down his face.

"Stop it!" Derek exclaimed, getting the masked person's attention away from Scott as he walked back over to Derek.

"You don't have the right either, murderer." he said coldly as he suddenly threw another sudden punch, this time into Derek's right eye.

Derek screamed loudly from the stinging pain of the punch, those screams emitting from Derek slowly turned into cries, the mask person's eyes emitted a disgusted look as he looked down upon the crying fox, now with a black eye.

Scott started to shudder a bit in fear as he watched his best friend get punched in the eye like that.

Suddenly, the sound of the door opening was heard as the masked person turned around and shortly nodded before the door closing was heard as the masked person turned back to Derek as his cries had turned into small shudders and whimpers.

The person suddenly then smashed his fist into Derek's stomach with a sudden punch, the fox gasping in pain before he started to cough up blood as the person walked towards the door and knocked on it before it opened, the person went into where the door led before it closed.

"What is wrong with you?! They are children!" a voice said to the person in an angered tone, expressing concerns for the boys.

"You know very well what they did, she is gone because of them!" The person responded, expressing anger at the other person.

"But that does not give you the right to do that to them! I may have followed with you on us taking the boys, but that doesn't mean I want them to be beaten black and blue!" the voice replied back in the same tone of voice.

"What are you going to do, stop me? You can complain all you want, old man. But the courts failed to bring her justice, I'm giving them the justice they so rightfully deserve." The person said back, challenging the voice to stop him before picking up a liter and lighting it as he spoke coldly about bringing them the justice they deserve.

**Chicago Police Station**

**Chicago, Illinois**

The Rangers went up the stairs into a big room with desks that had computers, telephones, and other small assortments with a few animals actually at the desks, on the phone with the rest standing up in a group next to a whiteboard.

"Wait here for a second." Hunter said as he walked up to the group and talked to them for a few seconds before bringing one of the animals from the group to the Rangers.

"Rangers, I like you to meet Sergeant Hank Panmann, he leads the detectives in this interagency task force." Hunter said, introducing the Rangers to Sergeant Hank Panmann, a panther that looked to be about middle-aged or a bit older, wearing a black buttoned-up shirt, jeans, and black tactical-style work boots. The panther extended his hand out to the Rangers, which Sully took and both shook hands.

"Hello, Danger Rangers, it's nice to meet you all, but I wish it was under better circumstances. I heard you were coming to help on the investigation, and although I wouldn't be so keen on this, we appreciate the extra help in finding the boys." Hank said to the Rangers as he shook the hands of all of them one by one and expressing his appreciation for the Rangers' help in the investigation.

"You're welcome, Sergeant Panmann. I want to find Scott and Derek as much as everyone else here as well as their kidnappers, We're willing to help by any means possible so we can find them all." Sully replied, expressing willingness to find the boys and the kidnappers and to help in any way to find them all.

"Right. Let me introduce the other detectives to you all and we'll get you all up to speed, come on." Hank responded, telling the Rangers he'll be introducing the other detectives to the Rangers and will get all the Rangers up to speed on the case at hand.

The Rangers followed Hank to the other detectives, a female snow leopard wearing a blue blouse, a leather black jacket, brown pants and brown shoes, a male rabbit with grey fur wearing a dark blue t-shirt and jeans, a male cougar wearing a grey polo shirt with tan pants and black shoes, and a female zebra wearing a white blouse and black pants.

"Danger Rangers, I like you to meet Detective Erin Leopard." Hank continued as he introduced the Rangers to the snow leopard detective and revealing her name.

"Nice to meet you, Danger Rangers." Erin said to the Rangers as she and the Rangers shook hands.

"Detective Jeff Rabbitson." Hank continued, introducing the Rangers to the rabbit as they all shook hands with one another.

"Hello, Danger Rangers." Jeff said to the Rangers as they shook hands.

"Detective Carlos Cougara." Hank continued, introducing the Rangers to the cougar as they shook hands.

"Hola, Danger Rangers." Carlos said to the Rangers with the greeting in Spanish, revealing his slight hispanic accent.

"And finally, Detective Rachel Zebron." Hank finished, ending the introductions of the detectives by introducing the last one to the Rangers as all of them shook hands.

"It's nice to meet you all, Danger Rangers." Rachel said as she shook hands with the Rangers before finishing shaking hands.

"Good, now let's get you all up to speed." Hank said as the Rangers finished the greetings with the other detectives.

"Right. Has there been any progress finding the boys, or at the very least, the kidnappers?" Sully responded, asking Hank if the task force is any closer to finding the boys or the kidnappers.

"To tell you the truth, Ranger Sully. We haven't made much progress if any. From what we got from witnesses and Mr. Bearonhart, the kidnappers' vehicle was a white van of an unknown model with the license plate of J0L7JY." Hank said, revealing that they haven't made much progress, but they do know what the kidnappers' vehicle was and the license plate number.

"We ran the plates and the plates came back to a report of a car theft taken from the driveway of one George Grizz, a grizzly bear, 62 years old, and dead as of three months ago, work accident." Erin continued, revealing the CPD ran the plates of the car and it came back to a report of it being stolen from a deceased grizzly bear who was dead.

The Rangers were a bit taken aback as this meant that a potential lead into finding the boys and the kidnappers was gone as Jeff continued on.

"And what we also know is that the kidnappers used smoke grenades to create a cloud of smoke in progress of the kidnapping, fire investigators also found shattered glass with traces of gasoline on them and a burnt cloth, indicating that one of the kidnappers threw a molotov cocktail and set the playground there on fire." Jeff continued before Kitty spoke up.

"Smoke grenades? How did they get those? And why did was the playground set on fire?" Kitty asked, asking how the kidnappers got the smoke grenades and why they set the playground on fire.

"Well, Ranger Kitty. We don't know as of yet why the playground was set on fire, it could have been used as a distraction. As for the smoke grenades, you can get them at party stores or online. We tried looking for anyone in the system who bought them online, but so far we have nothing." Jeff answered, revealing that they don't know where the smoke grenades came from and you can get them at certain places or online and also not knowing why the playground was set on fire, but came up with a theory that it could have been a distraction.

"We thought that, too. Usually kidnappers try to not attract attention, but what happened was something else, it's less likely a predator being the one responsible, but we can't rule it out." Hunter added, bringing up that kidnappers don't usually try and attract this much attention, so it was less likely a pedophile being the culprit, but they can't rule it out just yet.

"What about Derek's father? Is he okay? We heard he was stabbed by one of the kidnappers." Gabriela asked, asking about the condition of Derek's father.

"Last we checked, Mr. Crevan was in the ICU, I don't know if he'll make it or not. But what we do know from Mr. Bearonhart is that the knife was black and shaped like a military or hunting knife." Rachel responded, answering that Mr. Crevan was last in the Intensive Care Unit or ICU and the chances of him surviving might be slim, but they do know that the knife used was either a military or hunting knife.

"Also, this...was found at the crime scene by Chief Daniels of Station 7." Carlos added, picking up an evidence bag and showing the Rangers the smashed SAVO Unit that was found by Chief Daniels, the Rangers now realized why the signal disappeared and dread went through them as a police officer who was a collie came up the stairs and walked over to Hank, catching everyone's attention as she spoke to him.

"Sergeant, Mrs. Crevan is here." The officer said to Hank, telling him that Derek's mom was at the station, catching everyone's attention.

"Alright, thank you, officer. I'll take it from here." Hank replied, thanking the officer and telling her he'll come down to her as he followed the officer down the stairs.

On the floor below, Mrs. Crevan, a female fox with tan fur, wearing a green blouse and tan pants sat on the bench there with a tissue in her hands, wiping away tears as Hank came down the stairs and headed towards her.

"Mrs. Creavan? I'm Sergeant Panmann. I'm part of the task force that has been created with the FBI and the Danger Rangers in order to find Derek and Scott. I can assure you, we are doing everything in our power to find your son and his friend." Hank said to Mrs. Crevan, assuring that Chicago PD, FBI and the Danger Rangers will do everything in their power to find the boys.

"Thank you. Wait, the Danger Rangers are here?" Mrs. Crevan replied, revealing her North-Central dialect also stereotypically called the Minnesotan accent and thanking Hank before suddenly realizing Hank said that the Danger Rangers were there.

"Yes, they are. Come on, we'll talk more upstairs." Hank answered before saying that they'll talk more upstairs and she followed Hank up the stairs.

The two walked into the room where everyone was as Hunter was the first to approach her.

"Mrs. Crevan, I'm Special Agent Hunter Stripes, FBI. I lead the FBI agents for this task force in order to find Derek and Scott. Hunter said to Mrs. Crevan, introducing himself and showing his credentials and badge to her.

Mrs. Crevan nodded her head-turning his head to see Sully approaching as her attention was directed from Hunter to Sully.

"Hello, Mrs. Crevan. I can't imagine what you're going through right now, but we're going to do everything we can to find Derek and Scott, I can promise you that." Sully said,

"Thank you, Ranger Sully. Hello, Ranger Kitty." Mrs. Crevan replied, thanking Sully before she saw Kitty approach and said hello to her.

"Mrs. Crevan." Kitty said back to her as she nodded back as a way of accepting the introduction.

"You know...I am kind of glad that you and the other Rangers are on this search, you are Derek's favorite Danger Ranger, Ranger Kitty." Mrs. Crevan, telling the two Rangers she was glad the Rangers were joining in the search, adding that Kitty is Derek's favorite Danger Ranger.

Kitty nodded as Hank spoke up.

"Mrs. Crevan, do you know the status of your husband's condition?" Hank asked Mrs. Crevan asking about the condition of Nicholas.

"I visited the hospital before I came here after dropping Casey, Derek's baby sister at my mother in law's house, From what the doctor told me, Nicholas is going to pull through." Mrs. Crevan answered, saying she visited the hospital after dropping her younger daughter, also revealing her name at her mother in law's house and that Nicholas was going to pull through.

Everyone else in the room let out a quick sigh of relief at the news before Hank spoke up once more.

"Alright, let's talk in there, next to my office. I only need two other people from the other two agencies to join me."

"Agent Lowell, you take this one." Hunter said as he chose Everett for the interview with Mrs. Crevan, Sully was about to pick someone when his SAVO Unit, along with the other Rangers, beeped."

"Danger Alert! Danger Alert!" SAVO exclaimed, sounding off the Danger Alert as Hank and Mrs. Crevan went into the room.

"What is it, SAVO?" Sully asked the AI.

"My compu-scan has just indicated that there was a 9-1-1 call for a vehicle on fire. Ranger Sully...the model and color match the vehicle used in the kidnapping of Junior Danger Ranger Derek and Scott." SAVO answered, revealing his scanners had picked up a 9-1-1 call about a car fire that matched the description of the kidnappers vehicle.

A sense of dread came over everyone except for Hank and Mrs. Crevan, who were in the room.

"SAVO, where is it?" Sully quickly asked with a sense of urgency, asking the AI where the car fire was.

"3060 East 98th Street." SAVO answered, giving Sully the address the report of the car fire was.

"That's the gas company near the tollway bridge, I know where that is. Let me give you a ride." Hunter responded, knowing the location of where the car fire was and offering Sully a ride to the scene.

"Thanks, Agent Stripes. You mind if Kitty tags along?" Sully said and asked Hunter if Kitty could go with them.

"Sure, come on." Hunter replied, approving of it as Hunter went down the stairs with Sully and Kitty following after as Hank came out of the room to see the three head down the stairs.

"Where are those three going?" Hank asked, asking where the three were going before Burble answered his question

"Sergeant Panmann, SAVO got a report of a car fire...it could be the one that was used in the kidnapping."

Once he heard that, the feeling of dread came over him.

"Oh, I pray the boys aren't in that thing."

Meanwhile, the black SUV raced down the road with it's siren's wailing and police lights flashing as the three arrived at the scene where the car fire was reported, only to be stopped by the fire trucks and ambulances already there.

"I guess we'll have to walk the rest of the way." Hunter said as he got out of the vehicle with Sully and Kitty following after.

The three walked down to the police tape and the officer, a german shepherd waiting there, Hunter quickly showed his badge to the officer and let the three through as they came upon the scene, seeing the firefighters there with hoses in hand, dousing the burnt-out shell of a car.

The three of them saw Chief Daniels watching the other firefighters douse the car and approached him.

The dog fire chief turned to see them approaching and directed his attention towards the three.

"Hello, Danger Rangers. It's nice to see you again." Chief Daniels said as he and Sully shook hands first, then shaking hands with Kitty.

"You too, Chief." Sully responded as he and Chief Daniels shook hands.

"Hey, Chief Daniels." Kitty said, greeting the fire chief as they shook hands.

"Chief Daniels. Special Agent Stripes, FBI. We heard that the car your firefighters are dousing is the one used in the kidnapping of Derek Crevan and Scott Bearonhart." Hunter said, introducing himself and showing his badge to Chief Daniels before asking about the vehicle.

Chief Daniels went suddenly silent for a few seconds as a saddened expression came upon his face, the two Rangers noticed this.

"Chief, what's wrong?" Sully asked Chief Daniels, asking what was wrong and noticing the Chief's saddened expression. The dog sighed before giving his response.

"Yes...Yes, it is. The license plate didn't burn, it's the same number."

Shock and horror hit all three of them hard, Kitty put her hands over her mouth as shocked stricken and horrified expression hit all three of them.

"...and...we did find..t-...two...ch-...char-...chared...b-...bod-...bodies in th-...in the back of-...of the...v-van. B-Both l-...looked...like th-...they w-...were th-...the size o-...of ch-...a chi-...a...child. They-...they l-...look-...looked...like...the b-...the bo-...the...boys." Chief Daniels continued, choking up numerous times as he revealed to the three that they found two charred bodies in the back of the van that were the size of a child and they looked like Scott and Derek.

"Excuse me." Chief Daniels said as he walked away, trying not to cry as he still choked up a bit.

That shock and horror turned into dread and anguish as Kitty's eyes quickly filled with tears and just as quickly, started streaming down her face as she let out a few shudders as she started to choke up, Sully's eyes filled with tears as they also streaked down his face as it continued expressing shock and horror.

Hunter still had the same expression written on his face as his eyes started to glisten a bit.

What all three of them just heard was what everyone in this search feared and dreaded, what parents fear the most in these searches, what they just heard was that two bodies who looked like Scott and Derek that were charred because of the van being on fire, likely by the kidnappers, which meant that…

Derek Crevan and Scott Bearonhart were dead. They had been murdered.

The three of them then noticed four EMS, two who were male reindeers and the other two being a brown-furred female cat and a female mountain lion carrying two stretchers with something on them, the three saw as the EMS went by that on the stretchers were black body bags.

"Excuse me." Hunter said as he excused himself as he went back to the SUV and got inside, his glistening eyes emitting tears as a few started to streak down the tiger's face as he watched the stretcher being put into the ambulance.

Kitty's choking up couldn't be held in as she started to cry, mourning for the boys who were just burned to death, possibly alive. The fox that admired Kitty as his favorite Danger Ranger was gone.

Sully's fists started to clench as his expression turned from shock and horror to seething anger and rage, tears still flowed down his face as he spoke with a cold tone of voice as he and Kitty looked at the burnt-out van in shock, horror, dread, anguish, anger, and rage.

"T-They...will...p-pay! Those...h-heartless m-monsters...will...pay!"

**Chapter 3, coming soon**

**Prwtfalcon6**

**Review**


	3. Chapter 3: Fallen

**Chapter 3**

Silence, that was the atmosphere within the vehicle as it went down the now wet and slick road with rain pouring down from the sky with bolts of lightning streaking through the clouds, the flashes lighting the dark grey clouds and claps of thunder echoed throughout.

A pair of blue eyes that started to get a bit red in its white surroundings, also known as bloodshot eyes looked up at the sky as a lightning bolt streaked across it, which was followed by a clap of thunder.

Sully's eyes moved away from his gaze at the sky as a couple of tears still flowed down his face, a sniffle from him being the only noise anyone within the vehicle would emit.

Kitty's eyes were the same way, slightly red in its white surroundings, a couple of tears still flowed down her face and along with Hunter were silent.

Hunter would focus on the road in front of him, he would occasionally wipe his eyes of tears that were emitting from his eyes and streaking down his face, only for the tears to reform again and stream down his face once again, the process starting over when the tears started to hinder his focus.

Sully then broke the silence within the vehicle after the sound of quiet shuddering and crying emitted from him, catching Kitty's attention and seeing the Danger Rangers' leader weeping with his eyes closed and his palm was against his left eye, possibly trying to wipe away the tears from his eyes as they fell onto the floor.

Kitty extended her arm out towards Sully, but stopped as she started to hesitate for a minute before mustering up and put her hand upon the sea lion's shoulder.

Sully, upon the feeling of Kitty's hand on his shoulder, suddenly started to cease his crying as he turned towards her, sitting up as he continued to look into the worrying look in her eyes and the same expression written on her face.

Sully then took his right hand and put it upon Kitty's in a comforting manner to reassure her even though tears still streaked down his face and he did emit a sniffle or two as the vehicle continued down the road towards the station.

**Chicago Police Department Station**

**Chicago, Illinois**

**Meanwhile…**

A bit after Sully, Kitty, and Hunter had left to where the Danger Alert was, Hank went back into the room where Mrs. Crevan and Everett were. The room was in actuality the break room as there were cabinets on the wall and below it was a countertop with a sink and on the said countertop was a coffee machine with mugs that had been recently washed.

Next to the counter where the three were was a circular wooden table with chairs of the same nature. Mrs. Crevan was sitting in one of the chairs as Hank sat down in the chair on the opposite side of the table while Everett also took a chair and sat down next to Hank as their conversation began.

"Sergeant, where did Rangers Sully, Kitty, and Agent Stripes going?" Mrs. Crevan asked Hank as she had watched the three leave. Everett looked a bit confused as he was in the room and didn't hear why the three left.

"Mrs. Crevan...it seems that we have found the vehicle that was used in your son's and his friend's kidnapping... and I have heard that it...was burning. Now we don't know if anyone is inside, which I pray will not be the case, but I can guarantee you that we will catch the perpetrators." he answered Mrs. Crevan and cleared up the confusion emitted from Everett.

"Thank you." She replied, thanking him as the interview began with Everett asking the first question.

"Mrs. Crevan, do you know of anyone who would want to do this to either Derek or Scott?"

"No. I-...I don't know of anyone who would want to do this. Oh, my baby could be anywhere and those monsters are probably doing something horrible to him! They could be pedophiles for all I know!" she replied, answering Everett's question and started to fear the worst before Hank stopped her from rambling.

"Mrs. Crevan, I can assure you that the odds of the perpetrators being pedophiles are very slim. The perpetrators also set fire to the playground the boys were playing on, so this doesn't look like the work of a pedophile, but as I said, the odds are slim."

"Mrs. Crevan, we also looked at your son's juvenile record, it seems that he and Scott were sentenced to six months of community service for making a false 911 call and playing with illegal fireworks which caused a fire." Everett said. Mrs. Crevan was about to reply back when the door suddenly opened and Jose peaked his head in.

"Sorry to interrupt, but they're back." Jose said to the three as all of them stopped the interview and headed out of the room to join the awaiting group, getting in front of them.

Everyone awaited as they heard the three come up the stairs, they saw Hunter come up first and everyone started to notice the tiger's eyes were bloodshot and expression was a mixture of forlorn and frustration as he quickly sat down in an empty chair and he put his hand on his head, resting upon it as he put his arm on the desk right next to him.

The feeling of dread came upon everyone as they turned to the sound of Sully and Kitty heading up the stairs and saw them, noticing the two's eyes being bloodshot and having a saddened look written on their faces.

As the two Danger Rangers approached the group, that feeling of dread was turning into fear as Mrs. Crevan with a worried expression on her face, approached the two.

"Ranger Sully, what happened? Did you find the boys? Is my son okay?!" Mrs. Crevan exclaimed, wanting to know the answers to her questions concerning Derek and Scott.

Sully didn't answer, all he could give was the silent saddened expression on his face.

This increased the fearful feeling that was being emitted by everyone as GB whispered: "Ay Dios Mio, say it isn't so.".

Mrs. Crevan's eyes started to fill up with tears, her eyes started to glisten and her hands started to shake a bit in fear as she turned to Kitty, who also had the silent saddened expression on her face.

"Ranger Kitty?... Please answer me! What happened?!" she asked, going over to Kitty and asking her, she didn't respond at first as tears started to shed down her face and she looked back at the fox mother and broke the fearful silence with two words, the two words hitting Mrs. Crevan like a bullet to the heart.

"I'm sorry."

"No...No. No, it can't be...my baby...please tell me it isn't true...please..." Mrs. Crevan said as the tears started to stream down her face as the fox had taken a few steps backward in shock and anguish, her hands covering her muzzle as she spoke.

"There were...t-two bo-...bodies i-... in th-...in the v-van a-...and t-they...w-...were...ch-...charred...a-...and th-they looked l-...like...S-Sc-...Scott a-and...D-...Der-...Derek. I-it...i-is p-possible th-...that th-...they were b-...b-...bur-...bur-burned a-...al-...ali-...a-...alive. I-...I'm-...I'm...sorry." Sully said to Mrs. Crevan, choking up as he did so as tears streamed down his face.

"No...Derek...my-...my baby boy is...no...nononono...Derek...no...no...Derek...my baby... it can't be...it c-...can-...can't b-...it c-can't…" she said as she started to choke up as she spoke, still trying to reel from Sully telling her son was dead before the anguish got to her and she started to cry, tears streaming down her face like a waterfall and woeful sobs emitted from her.

Hank then helped Mrs. Crevan to walk towards the break room where she could mourn in seclusion as she sat back down at the table and grabbing her purse before pulling out a picture of Derek and held it in her hands as she mourned the loss of her son.

Meanwhile, the Rangers were all mourning as well, their eyes filled with tears and it streamed down their faces.

Burble was in shock and disbelief, he couldn't fathom what he had just heard, he started to stumble a bit, but didn't fall and managed to keep his footing as Burble started to emit small, quiet cries as he tried to wipe away the tears from his eyes.

Burt bowed his head in mourning, the turtle kept silent as tears still continued to streak down his face and drops fell to the floor.

GB started to choke up, emitting small shudders and cries as tears continued streaming down the hummingbird's face while Squeaky had a saddened expression written on his face with his head bowed down as both performed a gesture that neither noticed, they put their right hands on their foreheads and tapped it with their fingers or wings in GB's case, they then tapped the center of their chests before finally tapping both of their shoulders.

The movement and the pinpointed tapping was in the shape of a cross and the gesture is done by those of the Catholic faith, meaning that both Squeaky and Gabriela were Catholics.

The FBI agents all bowed their heads in mourning with the officers and Hank following suit.

"Excuse me." Sully said as he quickly walked away from the group and down a hallway and into a room where interrogations were held.

The room was a dark shade of light blue with a window emitting light at the very top near the ceiling, on the opposite side of the wall was the one-way window for viewing and a grey metal table and chairs occupied the room.

Sully closed the door and laid against the wall on the right side of the door, the sea lion exhaled before he started to shudder and gave off a few sniffles as tears continued streaming down his face. Then the shudders turned into cries as Sully started sliding down against the wall and onto the floor before he put his hands over his eyes and started to try and wipe away tears as the leader of the Danger Rangers continued to sob softly, anguish and sadness for the two boys who had just been murdered.

The door opened up shortly after and Kitty came into the room, seeing Sully sobbing in a fetal position with his arms wrapped around his legs, Sully looked up and turned to her as she closed the door, both still had tears streaming down their faces, but Kitty was drier than Sully's as the cat got down on her knees and looked at the sea lion, who got out of the fetal position as Kitty got down on the same level as him.

An expression of concern was written on the cat's face as the two stared at each other, saying nothing as their surroundings became silent.

After what felt like a few minutes had gone by, Sully started to choke up, letting out small cries and shudders as the tears continued streaming down his face.

Kitty then brought him in for a hug, the sea lion stopping with the cries, but tears still streamed down his face as he embraced the hug, wrapping his arms around Kitty before he started to choke up again, the sea lion soon starting to sob in anguish as Kitty comforted him, sounds of soft crying and shuddering emitted from the Danger Rangers' leader and his tears fell to the floor as they both mourned the loss of Scott and Derek.

**Meanwhile at the unknown location…**

"Where were you?!" A voice exclaimed as an older brown-furred Doberman as he got up from his chair angrily as another person walked to him and pulled off his black mask, revealing a Doberman as well, younger in age as he replied back to the older Doberman.

"Out."

"Jason, I am not playing games, where were you and what did you do!?" The older Doberman said to the younger now known as Jason in which he replied.

"I told you, old man. I was out. And I was just giving their parents the pain I felt when they took her away from us."

The older Doberman became shocked and appalled at what Jason had said as he replied back to him.

"Jason...What did you do?"

"All I did was "burn" those kids alive in the back of the van...which is now torched if you really wanted to know." Jason answered as he put his mask back on and opened the door into the room, leaving the older Doberman still in a state of shock.

Tears dropped onto the concrete floor and soft crying was heard as the door opened, Jason then walked towards the sounds as he closed the door with older Doberman coming up to the window on said door.

Jason approached who was making the sounds and an angered glare came upon his face as he spoke in a cold tone of voice.

"Pathetic."

"Leave him alone!" Another voice exclaimed at Jason which made him turn his head towards the other voice.

"Keep your mouth shut! You don't get to speak for the murderer." He responded back before turning back to who it was who was making the sounds of crying.

That person being Derek Crevan as tears continued to flow down his face and teardrops continued to hit the concrete floor, and the other voice belonged to Scott Bearonhart, blood drops stained the bear's shirt and the blood from the nosebleed had dried while Derek's black eye was still swelling a bit.

"Y-You...kil-...killed-...m-...my-... Dad!" He mustered out, in anguish and pain from what had transpired as he lifted his head up.

"An acceptable casualty, he got in the way of your forthcoming justice, I stopped him the best way I knew how." Jason replied back as he grabbed a pack of cigarettes from one of his belt holsters, pulled one out, and then pulled out a lighter. The Doberman lifted up his mask to only uncovering his muzzle, put the cigarette to his lips and flicked on the lighter before bringing the flame up to the end of the cigarette and took an inhale of nicotine that was within it before removing it from his lips and suddenly blew the smoke in Derek's face.

The fox quickly started to hack and cough from the smoke as Scott as well as the older Doberman watched in shock.

"You know, I don't usually smoke, but in this case...I'm willing to make an exception." Jason said to the still hacking and coughing fox as he suddenly lifted up Derek's shirt and struck his side with the burning cigarette.

Blood-curdling screaming came from Derek as Jason continued to twist the burning cigarette into the fox's side.

"See that? Now you know how it feels to be burned!" Jason exclaimed as he continued, Derek's screaming turning into pained crying.

"Stop it!" Scott screamed as the older Doberman pounded on the door, which caught Jason's attention as he stopped twisting and removed the cigarette from Derek's side, leaving a burn mark.

"You're lucky." Jason said to Scott as he walked to the door, which opened up when he got near it and went through the doorway before the older Doberman closed the door, stopping for a second during the process as he heard Derek's sobbing, remorse was what he was feeling and what his face was expressing.

Once he closed the door, he turned to Jason, who was ticked off as the older Doberman gave him a scowling angry glare before Jason spoke.

"What?"

"What!? You burn a child and all you can say is "What"!?" The older Doberman angrily exclaimed at Jason who still had an enraged look still on his face.

"You interrupted me, old man." Jason replied back in the cold tone he had been exhibiting.

"That doesn't matter! How do you think she would feel if she saw you doing this?! She would have resented you for what you-...!" The older Doberman responded in the same angry tone before he suddenly was interrupted by Jason taking out his knife and pointing it at the older Doberman's neck.

"Don't you dare bring her into this! You have no right to do that!" Jason exclaimed towards the older Doberman, an enraging tone in his voice.

"Jason…" the older Doberman started to say before he looked at his watch before taking the knife away from the older Doberman's neck and putting it back in the holster.

"I have somewhere to be, lucky for you. But we'll finish this talk when I get back." Jason said as he started to walk out of the building, the older Doberman was a bit dumbfounded at what he said.

"Wha-?! What are you going?" The older Doberman asked,a bit testy as he watched Jason walk out.

"It's none of your concern, old man." Jason replied as he continued down the hallway before turning and a door opening and closing were heard as the older Doberman turned towards the door and looked at the crying fox, clearly still in pain and mourning the "loss" of his dad.

The older Doberman started to take pity on the fox as he went over towards a nearby white case with a red cross symbol on it, it was a first aid kit. The older Doberman then opened the door, which made the boys look up and see him walk towards them with the first aid kit in hand.

The older Doberman approached Derek and got on one of his knees, setting the kit down before opening it.

"Don't hurt him!" Scott exclaimed towards the older Doberman as he pulled out an instant cold compress from the kit and applied it to the burn after lifting up Derek's shirt to reveal it.

Derek winced and hissed in pain once it was applied to the burn, the older Doberman finally replied to Scott.

"I don't plan on it. I'm applying a cold compress to the burn, it may hurt a bit, it'll relieve the pain until I can apply the rest of the necessary ointment and bandage." the older Doberman replied, explaining what he was doing as about fifteen minutes pass and two extra instant compresses were applied, he then put antibiotic ointment on the burn, using a sterilized applicator or a cotton swab to do it before putting a non-stick gauze bandage on it before grabbing the roll of gauze from the kit and wrapping it around Derek's waist before ripping it at the end in order to hold the bandage.

While he was being treated, Derek managed to stop crying, but tears still flowed down his face, he couldn't believe what he was seeing, one of the kidnappers, the one he bit, was now helping him as he then went over to Scott and used a wipe to wash away the dried blood before heading back as he then put everything back into the kit and closed it, getting up after.

"The bandage should be kept on for a couple of weeks so the burn can properly heal... It's getting late, I think you better get some shut-eye later on, and don't worry, I won't allow him to come in and hurt you two again." The older Doberman said to Derek as he turned and headed for the door.

"Excuse me, sir… thank you." Derek said which made the older Doberman stop before he thanked him for patching the burn.

"You're welcome. Listen, I want to say I am truly sorry for my son's actions against you." The older Doberman responded, revealing Jason was his son as he apologized for Jason's actions before opening the door and leaving the room.

**Meanwhile...**

**Chicago Police Department station**

**Chicago, Illinois**

"This has now...become a manhunt."

Hunter rose up from seat as lightning flashed and thunder cracked outside, the rain still pelting down on the building, everyone was reeling from the news at the loss of Derek and Scott as this now had become a manhunt for the murder or murderers.

"I'll cancel the Amber Alert and get a press conference ready." Hank said as he started to go into his office.

"Sarge, wait. We should wait for the official confirmation before we do that. It might give us time to get a lead on the perpetrators." Jeff noted which managed to stop Hank as he was about to pick up the phone before giving his reply.

"You're right, we should at least wait, thank you detective." Hank replied as he put the phone down and came back into the squad room as the detectives and agents got to work.

Meanwhile, in the interrogation room, small cries and shudders still emitted from Sully, though they were few in far between as Sully managed to get out a few words, saying "It's-...It's all-...my fault.

Kitty took notice of what Sully had said, blaming himself for the boys' deaths. She pulled out of the hug and went back to facing the distraught sea lion as tears still flowed down his face.

"Sully, it isn't your fault. You can't blame yourself for what happened." Kitty said to him in a concerning tone of voice, reassuring Sully as the sea lion replied back to her.

"It should be! First Ricky…now Scott and Derek! It's all my fault, Kitty! The boys are dead because of me!" Sully exclaimed at Kitty, still distraught as he put his head down and continued to emit small cries, still blaming himself over the boys' deaths as Kitty put her hand under his chin and lift the sea lion's head up, Sully saw her expression turn from concern to grave, the same in the tone of her voice as she spoke to him while tears flowed down her face

"Sullivan Sealford, I will not have you blame yourself for the death of Derek and Scott! How do you think I feel?! Derek admired me as his favorite Danger Ranger and now he's dead! I feel the same way you do, Sully. I want to take a bat with nails or barbed wire to those monsters that murdered them and start beating them with it! But I will not have you wallowing away, blaming yourself for this!"

Sully quickly managed to stop crying during and after Kitty's stern talking towards Sully. He stared at the stern look she was giving as Kitty still had tears flowing down her face. Sully then hung his head as teardrops hit the floor.

"I-I...I'm...Sorry." he said to her, apologizing as Kitty's expression turned back to that of concern, and Sully began letting out shuddered cries once again.

"Hey, has anyone seen Sully and Kitty?" Burble asked the Rangers, noticing the absence of the two.

"Yeah, where are those two?" Squeaky seconded, also taking notice as well as Burt and Gabriela

"I saw Ranger Sully and Kitty go into the interrogation room, they've been there in a while now." Erin answered, the Rangers then went over to the interrogation room door before Burble knocked on it.

The Rangers stood back as the door opened, Kitty appearing in the doorway with a solemn look on her face. Silence came upon them as Kitty stood out of the way for the Rangers to come in.

When they did, they saw Sully still on the floor, emitting small cries and shudders as he kept wiping tears from his eyes, but more kept flowing as a few drops hit the floor.

"I-I-...It-...It's a-all my f-...fau-...fault. It-It's a-...all m-my faul-...fault…" was all Sully could say as he repeated saying it over and over in his anguished state, the Rangers' expressions had become a mixture of concernment, sympathy as they watched Sully continued to wipe the tears from his eyes.

Burble quietly closed the door once everyone had gotten in as Kitty got down on one knee and put her left hand gently on Sully's shoulder, the sea lion stopped repeating what he was saying, managing to stop wiping the tears from his face and letting it freely flow as he lifted his head up and looked at Kitty, who then gestured her head towards the other Rangers.

Sully slowly turned his head towards the other Rangers, seeing the concern expressed on their faces.

"Sully, are you okay?" Burble asked him, Sully then turned his head back down before it moved side to side, his answer was no.

The Rangers except for Sully looked at each other for a few seconds before Kitty took his hand and held it firmly, Sully's head lifting up and looking into her eyes, which also had tears filling in them and shedding down her face which continued to express sadness and concernment.

Kitty then got off the ground and stood up as she helped the sea lion up off the ground and pulled him into a comforting hug in the process when Sully was at her height.

Sully still let his tears freely flow as he then wrapped his arms around her, embracing his girlfriend in her hug of comfort.

The hug wrapped up about a minute after as Kitty turned her head to the other Rangers with Sully following suit. The other Rangers, most notably Burble, had tears in their eyes with the polar bear having his arms spread out like a hug, waiting for Sully to embrace the comforting hug he was offering.

"We're all here for you, Sully. I'm here for you. You don't have to go through this alone." Kitty said to him, reassuring the sea lion as he managed to give a small smile.

"Thank you, all of you." Sully replied, thanking his teammates.

"You're welcome, Sully. Now, let Burble give you a bear hug." Kitty jokingly responded as Sully gave off a small chuckle before he walked over to Burble and let the polar bear embrace him in a hug before the other Rangers joined in, forming a group hug.

After a couple of minutes of the group hug, the Rangers came out of the interrogation room with everyone's tears wiped away from their eyes and faces. The CPD and FBI personnel noticed this as the Rangers went back to where they were.

"Ranger Sully, is everything alright?" Hunter asked. Sully turned to face the agent before giving his response.

"Just-...just had a mourning period." He responded, giving his answer to Hunter.

"We all have had one, Ranger Sully. Don't let it take control of you." Hunter said to him as the tiger came up to Sully and gave him a pat on the shoulder as the law enforcement personnel went back to what they were doing.

As the detectives and agents continued working, the Rangers noticed a female cat with black fur and wearing light blue medical scrubs walking up the stairs with a clear bag with the word _Evidence_ in black bold letters with an orange rectangular stripe background in her hand.

"Emily? What are you doing here?" Hank asked the cat, revealing her name as she came into the room and approached the panther.

"Hank, there's something of concern at the mor-...Hank, why don't you introduce me to your new friends, so we can all catch up to speed?" she replied, starting to bring up why she was here before noticing the Rangers and the agents, asking Hank to introduce her to them.

"Right Everyone, this is Dr. Emily Catra-Panmann, She's our medical examiner…and my wife. Emi-...I mean Dr. Catra-Panmann, I'd like you to meet Agents Stripes, Lowell, Malines, and Spots with the FBI and the Danger Rangers, they both are helping us with this investigation regarding the kidnapping and murder of those boys." Hank said, introducing her as Dr. Emily Catra, the medical examiner for the Chicago PD and Hank's wife before introducing the FBI agents and the Rangers to her.

Mrs. Crevan came out of the break room after mourning as she had seen Emily come into the squad room as the vixen approached her.

"I take it you're the mother of Derek Crevan?" she asked Mrs. Crevan.

"Yes, I am...I-...I'm Catherine Crevan. Are you here about m-...my son?" Mrs. Crevan replied, revealing her first name to be Catherine as she wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Well, that's what I came here for. Hank, those bodies I have in my morgue, they're not real." Emily said, shocking everyone, including Catherine, who started to shed tears at the revelation.

"Y-You mean-...m-my son i-is s-...sti-...still a-alive?" Catherine said to Emily, hoping that Derek could still be alive while she tried not to break down in tears.

"I-... I don't know for sure if he is or not, but there could be a better chance of that, in my opinion." Emily replied to Catherine's question with her own opinion.

"Doctor, what do you mean the bodies aren't real? I and Kitty were there after the firefighters had found them." Sully said, questioning Emily.

"And both of us saw them being carried on stretchers in body bags." Kitty added, backing Sully up.

"The bodies were made of some kind of non-flammable material, whoever set the faux bodies on fire probably used an accelerant like gasoline to do it, so it would give off a charred body look, plus I found this in it when I opened it up, it's a note." Emily replied before she gave the transparent evidence bag to Hank, inside was a white sheet of paper with handwriting on it.

"It says: "Now you know how it feels, the pain of losing someone close to you. We hope you'll remember this, because this is how you'll feel when we do this for real, try and see if you can find them, Chicago police." Jeff, get this to forensics and have them dust for fingerprints and check for any traces of DNA." he read before handing Jeff the evidence bag.

"Got it, Sarge." Jeff said before going down the stairs to forensics were as everyone got over the initial shock of what the letter said.

"I think we have a potential motive here. Whoever the perpetrators are, they are doing this out of a sense of vengeance, it could be in retaliation for the fire at 3684 Chicago Drive, the boys not only set the fire by lighting illegal fireworks but according to the report, Derek made a false alarm earlier that day. It could be possible that someone close to the perpetrators died or was injured in the fire." Hunter said,

"Wait a second, Agent Stripes. Me and Kitty were both at that fire, and as far as we know, no one died or was injured." Sully added.

"Then what about after the fact? It could be possible something happened after." Carlos interjected, adding his own conclusion to the motive.

"You could be on to something, Carlos. Check for any tenants who lived at 3684 Chicago Drive at the time of the fire who had died after and check for any who had underlying health conditions prior." Hank said, telling Carlos to check for anyone who lived at the building and died after the fact.

"Yes, sir." Carlos replied as he focused back on his computer.

"Well, I better get back. The rain is letting up and I'd rather get back to the office before it starts pouring down again. I'll come back later before I head home, okay?" Emily said.

"Okay." Hank responded as Emily gave him a kiss on the cheek before she left the squad room and went down the stairs, Hank unknowingly blushing after it happened.

"Sergeant Panmann, yuh're blushing." Squeaky pointed out to the panther, who quickly stopped when he realized what he was doing.

"Sarge, we got something!" Carlos exclaimed, catching the attention of everyone as he got up from his desk and went over to them

"What is it?" Hank asked.

"I search for any deaths from any cause that occurred after the fire, there was only one. Angela Tauber. 63 Years old, died from complications of Stage 4 Lung Cancer two weeks after the fire." Carlos answered, revealing the one death that had been reported.

"Did she have any family?"

"Yes, she did. A 64-year old husband, Tyler and two adult children. 41 year old, Noah and 32 year old, Jason."

"Any whereabouts of the three?" Erin asked Carlos.

"We only have Noah's whereabouts, he lives in Texas. Tyler and Jason's address is listed as 3684 Chicago Drive. So they must haven't changed it." Carlos answered, revealing the known and unknown whereabouts as Rachel got off the phone and spoke up.

"Sergeant, detail just reported Mr. Crevan has just woken up and is responsive."

"I'm going to head down there personally and get his statement, everyone keep on investigating, the minute you hear something, let me know." Hank said as he went into his office and grabbed his service weapon before starting to head down the stairs.

"I'm going with you and do what he said." Hunter added as he followed Hank.

"So are we." Sully responded, him and Kitty following Hank and Hunter down the stairs to head down to the hospital as the rain stopped and the clouds started to break.

**Chicago General Hospital**

**Chicago, Illinois**

The hospital was bustling with activity as Hank, Hunter, Sully, and Kitty arrived at the hospital, they walked through the hall towards where a CPD officer, a Jaguar was sitting in a blue chair next to the door, he quickly stood up as the four approached to the room and went in as Catherine was talking to Nicholas, who was lying in bed in a light blue hospital gown, the sheet covering him up to the top half of his torso, on his right hand was an Intravenous or IV line that connected to an IV drip and bag that was filled with Saline, a bloodline on his left arm connected to a blood bag that is used for transfusions with both bags were on the same metal pole with hooks.

Catherine was in a chair next to the bedside whilst holding her husband's hand as she kept talking to him.

On the other side of the room on a couch was Joel and sitting another bear, a female with yellow fur, wearing a light blue t-shirt and khaki pants. The four walked into the room and stood near the front of the doorway.

"...I am just so glad you're okay, Nicky. Oh, Ranger Sully, Ranger Kitty, Sergeant Panmann, Agent Stripes, I didn't know you all were coming." Catherine said as the four walked into the room, Catherine noticing them.

"Well, when we heard Mr. Crevan was awake, we came by to see how he was doing. But also, we would like to take a statement from you with regards to the search for your son." Hank replied, explaining why they were there.

"Have you found the boys?" the female bear asked Hank as she and Joel got up from the couch, tears forming in her eyes as the four turned their heads to them, Hank approaching the two.

"Unfortunately, we have not, but we're not giving up. I take it you must be Scott's mother." Hank said to the female bear before Joel spoke up.

"That's right. This is my wife, Maya."

"Mrs. Bearonhart, I'm Sergeant Panmann with the Chicago PD, I lead the team of CPD detectives in this task force to help find the boys." Hank said to Maya, introducing himself to her and showing his badge.

"And i'm Special Agent Stripes, FBI. I lead the Child Abduction Rapid Deployment team of agents that are part of the task force." Hunter followed, introducing himself as well before also showing his ID and badge.

"It's nice to meet you both, but I heard that the Danger Rangers were helping as well." Maya replied as the two Law Enforcement officials put their credentials away.

"Yes, they are." Hunter said before Maya and Joel walked up to Sully and Kitty.

"I guess we've never formally met. I'm Maya Bearonhart, Scott's mother." Maya said to the two Danger Rangers.

"And I'm Scott's father, Joel Bearonhart." Joel followed, introducing himself as well.

"I'm Ranger Sully and this is Ranger Kitty. Mr and Mrs. Bearonhart, I can't imagine what you both are going through right now. But I will promise we'll do everything we can to find Scott and Derek." Sully replied, introducing himself and Kitty to Joel and Maya as the bear wiped the tears from her eyes.

"Thank you. All of you. I will hope and pray that my baby is brought back home safe." Maya said, thanking the four for the reassurance.

"You're welcome, Mrs. Bearonhart. We all feel the same way and like Ranger Sully said, we'll do everything we can to find them, we are also glad you're going to fully recover, Mr. Crevan." Kitty replied as Maya and Joel went back to the couch, Kitty turning to Nicholas and spoke to him, the fox replying back.

"Well, we Crevan's are fighters after all and we Irish always have a slight trace of alcohol in our blood system to numb the pain."

Catherine suddenly snorted with laughter as she tried not to burst out laughing, Nicholas having an expression of confusion along with everyone else.

"Nicky, you know better than I do that you cannot handle alcohol, remember what happened the last time you drank." Catherine said whilst laughing, sudden realization hitting Nicholas as his expression turned to that as he started to blush in embarrassment.

"I thought you were never going to talk about that!" Nicholas exclaimed, the fox clearly embarrassed when his wife brought it up.

"Oooh. I wanna hear this, what happened?" Joel said intriguingly, interested in what happened.

"Nothing Happened!" Nicholas quickly denied, still in a state of embarrassment before Catherine told the story.

"Well, Joel, it happened a few hours after he proposed to me, we were meeting some of our friends in a bar, don't worry, we were at the legal age at the time. I showed them the ring he proposed to me with and we ended up getting drinks on the house when one of our friends decided to tell the whole bar about our engagement. We proposed a toast to the engagement and Nicholas, I honestly don't know why, but he chugged half of it down really fast." Catherine explained, telling the story before Sully spoke up.

"That was not only unhealthy, but a very bad idea, Mr. Crevan. You should've never drank that fast."

"You can't really blame me for doing that, Ranger Sully. I was happy, I had proposed to the woman I love just a few hours earlier that day." Nicholas retorted, explaining his reasoning.

"We don't blame you, Mr. Crevan. You were both adults and the legal age, you have a right to drink alcohol, it's just that what you did was not safe." Kitty added before Catherine spoke up again, finishing the story.

"And trust me, he learned that the hard way. Anyway, after that we did get to talking for a bit before one of my friends noticed Nick was starting to get drunk, I decided to take him home and he went on this happy drunken rant, I don't remember what he said exactly, but I do remember him saying "Surely my...inhibitions...LOVE YOU!" and then you nearly blacked out on me, it was hysterical."

Joel started laughing with everyone else except for Nicholas giving off some giggles as Catherine finished telling the story, even pulling off a drunken voice when she was impersonating Nicholas.

Nicholas however, wasn't really as happy as the others as he was expressing scorn towards Catherine before he spoke to her.

"I hate you."

"I love you too, sweetie." Catherine replied, giving him a kiss on the forehead as Joel managed to calm down and stop laughing before wiping a tear from his eye as he spoke.

"Oh, we needed a good laugh."

"It's kind of getting crowded in here, i'm gonna step out for a bit to get a drink of water. Would any of you like anything?" Cathrine asked as she got up from her chair.

"No thanks, Catherine." Nicholas replied, she then turned to Joel and Maya, who shook their heads no before turning to the two Danger Rangers and the two law enforcement officials.

"No thank you, Mrs. Crevan. We're good." Sully responded with Hank and Hunter also shaking their heads.

"Okay then, excuse me." she said as Sully, Kitty, Hank, and Hunter moved out of the doorway and let Catherine pass, she started walking down the hall before something grabbed her attention.

"Mom!" A voice exclaimed, Catherine turned towards the voice. Surprise, joy, and a forming smile were expressed on her face as Sully, Kitty, Hank, and Hunter also came out of the room when they heard the voice.

Coming down the hallway was a fox with brown fur-like Nicholas' and Derek's, but was more akin to Sully in terms of height.

The two Danger Rangers both took notice of what the fox was wearing, a camouflage uniform used by the military known as the OCP or by its nickname, "Fatigues". He wore a camouflage jacket over a tan shirt, pants with the same camouflage design and tan laced combat boots.

On the right side breast was a name tag in spice brown letters and having the same camouflage pattern that read _CREVAN_, revealing the fox to be Catherine's older son.

On the left side breast of the uniform was another tag that read _U.S AIR FORCE_ in spice brown letters and above that tag was a small patch with the image of a shield engraved with stripes and having wings connected to said shield in spice brown.

In the center of his chest was another small patch of an image of a single spice brown rectangular bar, on the right upper shoulder was a reversed American flag that was usually done by the US Military, below it was a patch of a circle with the image of an eagle looking through a scope with a missile in its talons, connected to the bottom of the shield was a curved strip that had the words _492D FIGHTER SQ_ on it.

On the left upper shoulder was a single patch that was a shield that had the image of the Statue of Liberty, showing only her head, part of her shoulders and her right hand which held the famous torch, surrounding her were thirteen stars and connected to the shield at the bottom was a ribbon with the words _STATUE DE LA LIBERTE_, all three of the patches were in the spice brown color.

In his right hand was a cap known in the military as a "Patrol Cap", it had the same camouflage design with the name tag also being on the back strap and on the front, just above the visor was the same rectangular bar as the one on his chest, both also in spice brown coloring.

"Darren!" Catherine exclaimed happily, revealing his first name to be Darren as she ran up to the fox and hugged him tightly, both embracing it as few tears of joy came from her eyes.

The two finished the hug as Catherine looked at him whilst wiping the tears away from her eyes.

"Wha-? What are you doing here? I thought you would be in England." Catherine asked Darren, revealing that he was in England, most likely based there.

"That's not important right now, how's Dad?" Darren replied, shifting the topic quickly to Nicholas' condition.

"Oh, right. The doctors have said he's going to make a full recovery. In fact, he's awake right now." Catherine said to Darren with him quickly sighing in relief.

"Thank goodness. And what about Derek? Have they found him and Scott?" Darren responded and asked after sighing. Catherine gave a forlorn expression to him, indicating to Darren that Derek and Scott hadn't been found yet.

"They haven't been found yet, Darren. I'm sorry." Catherine replied, answering her son's question as a tear fell from his eye, but he quickly wiped it away before turning to her again.

"And Casey?" Darren asked about his younger sister.

"She's with your Grandparents." Catherine answered as Darren looked up to see Hunter, Sully, and Kitty looking at him.

"Mrs. Crevan, I take it this is your eldest son." Sully said to her as she turned to the Danger Rangers' leader when he spoke.

"Yes, he is. Why don't you go introduce yourself. " Catherine replied to Sully before turning back to Darren before he introduced himself to the four.

"Right. My name is Darren Crevan, I'm a First Lieutenant in the United States Air Force, I'm also Derek and Casey's older brother. I take it you two are Danger Rangers." Darren said, introducing himself, revealing his rank and in fact, he is Nicholas' and Catherine's eldest son as he turned his attention to the two Danger Rangers first.

"Yes, we are. I'm Sully, and this is Kitty." Sully responded, introducing himself and Kitty as Darren came up to them and shook their hands, Sully giving off a quick saluting gesture to Darren after.

"Nice to meet you, First Lieutenant." Kitty said to Darren as he shook her hand before he replied back to her.

"Thank you, Ranger Kitty. But please call me Darren, Derek's told me a lot about you, Ranger Kitty. You're his favorite Danger Ranger, you know."

"I am aware of that, Darren." Kitty replied, giving a smile at the reminding of Derek's favoritism for her. Darren then turned to Hank and their conversation started, Darren shaking his hand throughout.

"I'm Sergeant Panmann, Chicago PD. I am part of a task force in finding Derek and Scott. I do wish this meeting was under better circumstances."

"I understand, Sergeant. I just hope my baby brother and Scott are both found safe, I would do anything to find them if I could."

"I hope that too, Lieutenant. I can relate to what you and your family are going through. If my daughter or my son had been kidnapped, I would have done nothing but search the planet to find them."

Darren then turned to Hunter as the tiger pulled out his badge and ID, showing it to the fox.

"Lieutenant, I'm Special Agent Stripes, FBI. I'm also part of the task force in the finding of your younger brother and his friend. If I may ask, Lieutenant, why were you in England?" Hunter answered, introducing himself and asking Darren of his whereabouts.

"I'm stationed at RAF Lakenheath, I'm part of the 492nd Fighter Squadron which is part of the 48th Fighter Wing. See." Darren replied, answering Hunter as he pointed at the patches of the fighter squadron and the wing he was a part of.

"I can see, Lieutenant." Hunter responded before he heard a familiar voice catch him.

"Darren? I-Is that...you?"

Darren turned to face the hospital room and he looked at his father with happy tears in his eyes and a joyful smile on his face. The eldest Crevan also had tears forming in his eyes as well with a smile also expressed on his face as he walked into the hospital room and bent down next to his bed.

"Dad! I-I'm so glad you're okay!" Darren said as he suddenly hugged his father as he gave a small shudder with the tears falling from his eyes, although he was hugging Nicholas a bit too hard as he had winced in pain when Darren hugged him, but he still kept his smile as he gave his response.

"Thanks, Darren. But you're kinda hugging me a bit too hard!"

"Oh! I'm so sorry, Dad!" Darren said, letting go of Nicholas before he turned to Joel and Maya and approached them.

"Mr and Mrs. Bearonhart. I express my condolences for what you are going through right now." Darren said to the two as he got on one knee.

"Thank you, Darren. But how did you get here?" Maya replied to Darren as he got back up.

"Well, mom had called the Air Force to let me know what happened, at the time, I was taking part in war games and was heading back to my Base Housing when I got the message, my CO and Base Commander offered me the chance to come stateside since what happened to Derek and Dad would be considered authorizable for emergency leave. So, after going through the PERSCO form and assortments, I managed to get a flight that was heading stateside to Naval Base Great Lakes and I had to take the transit train to get here into the city and here we are." Darren explained.

"So, how long will you be staying?" Catherine asked her eldest son.

"A week." he answered.

"Well, i'm glad you're here, son." Nicholas followed, expressing his joy that his eldest son was here.

"Thanks, Dad." Darren replied before Catherine spoke up.

"Sergeant Panmann, you said that you had something to tell us concerning the search for the boys?" Catherine said, realizing that they neglected to tell them that earlier.

"Oh, right. Angela Tauber, ring any bells for any of you?" Hank replied, asking them about Angela Tauber, they all shook their heads no as Hunter spoke.

"We have found that Angela Tauber had passed away two weeks after the fire at 3684 Chicago Drive. She had Stage 4 Lung Cancer and it is evident that the fire may have contributed to her death."

"Are...you going to charge the boys?"

"That's up to the District Attorney, but I do highly doubt they will since she passed from natural causes, the boys already having been punished already, and the fire was determined to be negligent, but not deliberate." Hank replied, answering Catherine's question as Hunter spoke up.

"And it seems the deceased had family, her husband, Jason and her two sons, Noah and Tyler. The eldest of the two boys is currently in Texas, so he has been ruled out as a suspect, but we have determined Jason and Tyler to be the current prime suspects. Do any of their names mean anything to any of you?"

Everyone shook their heads no as Darren spoke.

"No, are...they the ones who took Derek?" Darren asked Hunter and Hank, his eyes starting to glisten for the oncoming tears.

"We do not know for sure, but the death of Angela Tauber may have been a motive for revenge against the boys if they did, indeed kidnap them." Hunter answered, implying the motive for Derek and Scott's kidnappings.

Darren's eyes widened as he turned to Nicholas for a few seconds before he looked down at the floor, the fox's eyes quickly shutting as tears flowed from them down his face and he let off a small whimper. Catherine and Nicholas quickly noticing this with concern quickly being expressed on their faces.

"Darren, what's wrong?" Catherine asked her distraught son as he put himself against the wall and slid down it. Sully expressed concern and sympathy as he watched someone be in the same state he was in.

Catherine got up from her chair and went over to her son, bending down to his level as the distraught fox tried to wipe the tears from his face.

"I-It's…It's all my fault! I should have gotten rid of those things before I left!" Darren said in his distraught state,

"What do you mean, Darren?" Kitty asked, the fox turning to her and seeing her expression of sympathy and concern, just like Sully.

"T-The...The matches! I-If I gotten rid of those things before I left for the Air Force, this all would have never happened! Dad told me, those matches were the ones Derek used to light those fireworks that started the fire!" Darren exclaimed, answering in his distraught state.

"If those matches started that fire, why did you have them in the first place and how was Derek able to get them?" Hank asked Darren, the fox turning to Hank as he gave his answer.

"I-...I was in a...dark place when I was a junior in High School. I got into the wrong crowd, trying to fit in. The crowd was involved with drugs. Marijuanna. I only did it a couple of times before my high butt managed to get stabbed in the side with a switchblade, I woke up in the hospital and I found out the person who stabbed me and the group had been busted and they were sent to jail, I was very lucky I wasn't charged. Was Dad mad? No, he was furious! Both him and Mom. He told me that I had to straighten my life out, not only for them, but for Derek too. Derek was a little tyke at the time. Anyways, after going through not only withdrawal, but also getting clean. I still had those matches, so I put it on a little display thing to remind myself to never go back to that life. Oh, he must have snuck into my room one day and grabbed it."

"I'm glad you got clean from drugs, Darren. But you shouldn't blame yourself for this, you don't share any blame nor does Derek or Scott. The kidnappers are the ones who will take the blame, it was on their actions and their actions alone." Sully said, reassuring Darren as the fox got up and managed to wipe the tears away before he replied to the Danger Rangers' leader.

"Thank you, Ranger Sully."

"You're welcome." Sully responded before Sully and Kitty's SAVO units began flashing and beeped.

"Danger Alert! Danger Alert!" SAVO alerted, catching everyone's attention.

"What's up, SAVO?" Sully asked the AI.

"My compu-scans have detected a 9-1-1 call about a fire at 1247 North street, the fire department is already on its way." SAVO replied, giving the location where the fire was.

"SAVO, activate the Hovercraft's auto pilot and bring it-..." Sully started to say to the AI before Hunter put his hand on the sea lion's shoulder, stopping him.

"Hold on, Ranger Sully, let me get you and Ranger Kitty to your aircraft, it'll be much faster." Hunter responded.

"Thanks, Agent Stripes. We'll get the other Rangers. SAVO, cancel that request." Sully replied as all four left the hospital.

Hunter dropped Sully and Kitty off at the Hovercraft, the two Danger Rangers heading up the ramp and soon enough, it hovered off the ground and took off.

**1247 North Street**

**Chicago, Illinois**

Charred remains of the building blended in with the black night sky, the only illumination came from the street lights and the red and blue lights of the emergency vehicles. A few hoses being wrapped up by firefighters on the wet pavement while only one still spraying water into the building to stop any hotspots from flaring up.

Chicago Police officers block the scene and redirect traffic away from it, two paramedics take a body in a body bag on a stretcher to an awaiting ambulance, and watching them, was Sully, wearing yellow turnout gear, holding his helmet in his hands with it placed on his lap, and sitting in the back of the ambulance.

Sully watched the paramedics load the stretcher into the ambulance with a forlorn expression written upon his face before turning his head away to face the wet pavement of the road. Then, a pair of boots came within his field of vision, which caused Sully to look up and see that the boots belonged to Kitty, also in firefighter gear like his except she still had her helmet on.

Sully could see the obvious look of concern on Kitty's face as they stared at each other for more than a few seconds before Sully brought his head down, Kitty took off her helmet and sat down in the ambulance next to him, putting the helmet in her lap and holding it in her hands.

"Hey, are you okay?" Kitty asked him as she turned to her head towards him.

Sully didn't reply at first, he continued to stare at the ground for about half a minute before he lifted his head and replied to her.

"I-...I don't know."

Kitty's eyes slightly widened for a second before she replied back to Sully.

"Do you want to talk about it?" she asked as Sully turned his head to look at her, her concerned expression looking at his forlorn expression before Sully sighed and turning back his head to the pavement.

"They told me it was the overnight security guard who had called 9-1-1, that guard is now in a body bag. I saw his body, Kitty. And I feel like I could have to see Derek, Scott, or both of them in that thing, we thought we lost them both earlier today. But I feel like I failed and could have done more to try and save him." Sully said to Kitty, explaining what was going on as she put her hand on Sully's right shoulder.

"Sully, you know as well as I do that not everyone will make it when accidents or disasters happen. But I think I can kind of get what's going on with you." Kitty replied to him.

"What?" Sully asked her before she replied to the sea lion.

"It possibly could be PTSD, it sometimes happens when someone loses a family member. You could be feeling guilt for what happened not only to Scott and Derek, but also Ricky, and you feel like you were helpless to do anything about it. Sully, there are some things that are out of your control, but if you can overcome any disaster or rescue, you can overcome this. Remember what I said to you back in the interrogation room, We'll all be there for you, Sully. You don't have to go through this alone." Kitty answered.

"T-...Thanks, Kitty. That was...really insightful." Sully responded, tears starting to form in his eyes.

"Well, I had someone who does this for a living who gave me some tips on it. Maybe I can arrange for you and her to have a session, it might help." Kitty said as Sully wiped the tears from his eyes before he looked at and replied to her.

"Thanks, Kitty."

"You're welcome, Sully." Kitty responded as she put her left hand on his right hand in a gesture of reassurance.

"Ranger Sully, Ranger Kitty." A voice said, the two turned their heads to the voice, it belonged to Chief Daniels.

"Chief Daniels, what is it?" Sully asked as he and Kitty got up from the back of the ambulance.

"We've found what caused the fire and it has been determined to be arson, possibly by the same person who set fire to the Armington Playground." Chief Daniels answered, revealing what happened.

"Are-...you saying that the same people who kidnapped Derek and Scott, also set this fire?" Kitty asked Chief Daniels.

"It would seem that way, yes. I-...also heard about what we found at the van fire, I am glad that the boys aren't dead, but I am still fearful for them and hope and pray that they are found safe. I have kids of my own, and I wouldn't know what to do if they were kidnapped." Chief Daniels answered.

"We do too, Chief." Sully added.

**Later on…**

Panting. Running. Darkness. Silence. That's all Sully was doing and could see as he ran through the dark void until he suddenly stopped, his eyes widening in fear.

What he was seeing was Derek and Scott, terrified as they were surrounded by a ring of fire which inched closer and closer to the two boys, Sully quickly sprinted to try and reach the boys.

"Help us!" That's all they could muster to scream as the ring had encased them in a small circle before the fire suddenly shot upwards with a loud _FWOOSH!_, engulfing the boys.

Screams of torturous pain and agony escaped from the boys as he watched in horror as the two were burned alive until he could hear their screams no more, their shadows disappearing from the flames.

"Sully!" Squeaky's voice exclaimed which made Sully turn his head to see the other Rangers except for Kitty in the same position that the boys were in, the Rangers were just as terrified as the ring inched closer to them, Sully, fearing what happened to Derek and Scott would happen to the Rangers, sprinted towards them while calling out to them.

Silence, that's all he could hear, it was evident that he couldn't hear his own voice, it was like he was deaf. The ring quickly inched closer as he continued to run, but he couldn't seem to reach them, it was like the rings were moving the Rangers away from them, he was about to catch up before…

_FWOOSH!_

The rings engulfed the Rangers, Sully stopped and fell to his knees as he could hear the blood-curdling screams of his teammates, watching in horror. Sully's eyes quickly filled with tears and shedded down his face, he quickly shut them and tried covering his ears, but he could perfectly hear the agonizing screams, he started screaming himself as the screaming of the other Rangers ceased, his silent screams of anguish was all being voiced within the dark void he was in, the one where he watched not only Scott and Derek

"Sully!" Kitty's voice exclaimed, Sully quickly opened his eyes and sprinted, running as fast as possible towards her, she stood at the end of the five pillars of fire shooting upwards. Sully nearly reached her before he suddenly felt something grab his lower leg, which made him trip.

Sully was suddenly brought up to his knees, where he could see Kitty looking at who or what had grabbed him in horror and shock. Sully turned his head to look behind him and see what had grabbed him, what had grabbed him were two humanoids made of fire with only having red eyes on their faces holding onto his arms, keeping them behind his back. Sully's eyes widened and was even more surprised at the fact that he felt no pain.

Sully tried to get up and run to Kitty, but the fire humanoids kept a strong grip on his arms which prevented him from getting up. The ring of fire surrounded her as Kitty's eyes filled with tears and they shedded down her face as she looked at Sully with a saddened and distraught expression on her face.

"I love you." Kitty said before the ring erupted with a loud _FWOOSH!_, engulfing Kitty. He then heard the agonizing screams, Sully continued to struggle to escape the grip of the fire humanoids as he screamed and started sobbing. Kitty's screams ceased about a minute later, in which the humanoids let him go and disappeared into the void.

Once let go, Sully was on the ground on his elbows and knees, bawling as the tears escaping from his eyes continued to stream down his face and hit the ground, the sea lion slammed his left fist on the ground a couple of times as he let out another silent scream of anguish, something bright suddenly caught Sully's eye which caused him to stop crying and look up to see a ring of fire surrounding him and quickly inching closer. Sully then got into a fetal position and wrapped his arms around his legs before burying his face into his knees, closing his eyes and awaiting the inevitable.

_FWOOSH!_

A white flash hit his vision.

Sully suddenly opened his eyes and quickly lifted himself up, the blanket falling from him as he sat in the cot bed he had been sleeping on, he looked to his surroundings, The other Rangers were in the same type of bed, soundly sleeping as Sully saw that he was a bit sweaty and he could feel tears streaming down his face. Turns out, Sully was having a nightmare.

The sea lion quickly got up from his bed with a blanket wrapped around him and headed for the cockpit of the Hovercraft, unaware that someone had woken up and saw him get up.

Once he got into the cockpit, he sat himself against the left side wall in the same fetal position he had been in at the police station and in the nightmare before he started sobbing quietly, trying to wipe away the oncoming tears from his face to little or no avail.

The door to the cockpit then opened which made Sully suddenly stop sobbing and look up and see Kitty come into the cockpit, seeing him in his distraught state, her expression turned to concern as she rushed over to him, getting on her knees to face the distraught Sea Lion.

Anguish overrode him as he let off a quiet sob before suddenly hugging Kitty, quiet sobs emitted from him as Kitty embraced Sully to comfort him.

Later on, as the sun rose in the sky, the two would be sleeping together, laying against the wall with their blankets surrounding and embracing them. Kitty's head would lay on Sully's shoulder while his head laid on hers.

**The next day…**

The Rangers returned to the station as everyone continued on with the investigation which now had an actual body on it, as they did so, three people walked up the stairs and into the squad room.

They consisted of a male white tiger wearing a dark blue t-shirt and black khaki pants, a lioness with golden fur, she wore a white blouse under a black leather jacket, dark blue jeans, and black shoes. And finally, a male bobcat with tan fur wearing a black t-shirt and jeans.

"Who are you?" Hunter asked the White Tiger who had just appeared with the lioness and the bobcat.

"Special Agent Jeremy Tatara, ATF. Behind me is Special Agent Katie Liron and Adam Bobak." The white tiger said to Hunter as he pulled out his wallet from his pocket and opened it with the other agents following suit. Inside was a gold badge like Hunter's, but parts of it were blue and were bigger than the FBI badge.

The badge had an eagle connected to the top similar to the FBI one, but the difference was that the eagle wasn't holding it by its talons and in front of the said eagle were balancing scales.

The badge itself consisted of three sections, at the top was a blue background with the letters _Department of Justice_ and the letters _ATF_ below it, both engraved in gold, the second section was the biggest out of the three, in the middle of it was the seal of the ATF, the corded edge was in the outermost ring of the seal while the next inner circle was a blue background and had the words _Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives_ with the number _1972_ which signifying its founding year in gold, the final inner circle had the symbolism of a shield that had a chevron arrow on it, pointing upwards towards and below it was a symbol of scales, the shield was wrapped in a laurel wreath with three stars above it.

Next to the seal were the letters _U_ and _S_ engraved in blue.

And the third and final section was a small blue stripe with the words _Special Agent_, also engraved in gold.

The ATF or the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (and explosives) is the federal law enforcement agency whose responsibilities include the investigation and prevention of federal offenses involving the unlawful use, manufacture, and possession of firearms and explosives; acts of arson and bombings; and illegal trafficking and tax evasion of alcohol and tobacco products with it also regulating via licensing the sale, possession, and transportation of firearms, ammunition, and explosives in interstate commerce.

"Hello." Katie said, extending her greetings.

"Hi." Adam said, also extending his greetings.

"Special Agent Hunter Stripes, FBI. This is Agents Lowell, Malines, Lobo, and Spots" Hunter replied, revealing his ID card and badge to Jeremy and introducing himself and the other agents as he extended out his hand for a handshake before Jeremy followed through with it and they shook hands before letting go while everyone gave quick hellos to each other.

"Hello Agents, I'm Sergeant Hank Panmann, and I'd like you three to meet the other detectives. Detectives " Hank said as he came up to Jeremy and introduced himself and the detectives before they shook hands as well.

"It's nice to meet you all too." Jeremy said as the two finished shaking hands.

"Agent Tatara, if I may ask, why are you here?" Burble asked Jeremy which made the white tiger suddenly noticed the Danger Rangers and turned his head towards them.

"Hey, you're the Danger Rangers, aren't you?" Jeremy responded to them before Sully approached him.

"We are, I'm Ranger Sully, behind me is Rangers Kitty, Burble, Burt, Squeaky, and Gabriela. It's nice to meet you, Agent Tatara." Sully said to Jeremy, introducing himself and the other Rangers as he reached out his hand for a handshake as well, Jeremy putting his hand into Sully's and both shook before replying to him.

"Likewise, Ranger Sully. I do wish it was under better circumstances."

"So do I, Agent Tatara. Now, as Ranger Burble asked, why are you here?" Sully replied as they finished the handshake and let go.

"My team and I are officially joining this investigation, you have an arsonist who not only kidnapped two kids but has set three fires already, one of them having a body on it, this is ATF territory." Jeremy replied, explaining his reasoning.

"Hold on, you're not taking over this investigation, are you? We still have to find the boys." Jose said to Jeremy.

"No, we aren't, Agent Lobo. The ATF is joining this task force, we'll take on the fires, the rest of you can continue looking for the boys. Now, would you mind filling us in so we can get up to speed?" Jeremy replied, assuring Jose of the ATF's intentions before asking to be filled in.

"Oh, right. Derek Crevan and Scott Bearonhart, both-..." Hank said as he started to fill in the ATF agents on the case as the Rangers also listened in.

**Meanwhile at the unknown location…**

The door opened up once again and the boys looked up to see the older Doberman come in.

"Hello, boys. I hope you're doing well." the older Doberman said, greeting the boys.

"Thank you, sir. I-...I also wanted to apologize for biting you. I'm sorry." Derek replied before apologizing to the Doberman.

"No need to, I should be the one who's apologizing. But let me try and make it up to you, you guys must be hungry." the older Doberman said to them before he reached into his pocket and pulled out a granola bar.

"Do you guys like them?" the older Doberman asked the boys, which they replied by shaking their heads yes. The older Doberman unwrapped the granola bar and broke it in half and fed them to the boys, getting on one knee to match their level. After Derek and Scott ate the bars, the older Doberman stood up and spoke to Scott and Derek.

"I think I should introduce myself properly, my name is Tyler, but you can call me Mr. Tauber." the older Doberman said to the boys, introducing himself as Tyler Tauber.

"I'm Scott and this is Derek." Scott replied back to Tyler, introducing the two to the older Doberman.

"Mr. Tauber, why did you and your son kidnap us? And why did he kill my dad?" Derek asked Tyler the reason why they were kidnapped and why Jason "killed" his father as a shed of tear dripped down his face.

"I was...forced to under threat by Jason...I…do not exactly know why he...killed your father, but his reasons for kidnapping you and Scott are because he believes that you two caused the death of my wife and his mother, whom he had a really good relationship with. He saw you two being led into a police car at the scene of a fire." Tyler explained to the boys which left the boys a bit confused.

"Death? What do you mean, Mr. Tauber?" Scott asked Tyler before he replied back to the boys.

"Let me tell you a story, boys. I'd like to tell you about a woman named Angela, we were high school sweethearts and we got married after we both graduated from college, we stayed together for fifty years and even gave birth to two boys, but then came the day that changed everything, during our high school days and our young adulthood, we were both avid smokers and it resulted in Angela getting Lung Cancer, stage four, she had about six months to live, but then about five months pass by and a fire broke out in our apartment building and the resulting smoke caused her lung cancer to spread. She passed away about two weeks after, And then I was diagnosed with lung cancer as well, but this one was treatable and I've already had the procedure, but I still miss her and will be ready when I am to be reunited with her."

"I-... I'm so sorry." Derek said, offering condolences to Tyler.

"It's okay, I have moved on." he replied back to the fox.

"Mr. Tauber, if you don't mind me asking, where was the fire?" Scott asked Tyler.

"3684 Chicago Drive. Why?" he answered, revealing the address to the boys before Derek's eyes suddenly went wide as he started to have a Flashback to what happened there.

_Flashback_

"Look at these, Roman Candles!" Derek said as he held two fireworks in his hand, showing them off to Scott as the bear replied, "Yeah…".

"We're gonna have our own fireworks spectacular right here." Derek said, putting down the ones he was holding and grabbed a few from the box and quickly juggled them for a few seconds before letting them drop back into the box.

"Derek, maybe we should turn them in." Scott suggested as Derek started to pick up one of the fireworks he had earlier set on the ground.

"What?" Derek dejectedly said, dropping the singular firework in his hand he had picked up when Scott suggested they turn in the fireworks.

"I mean the fire department might even give us a reward, like a super-fast ride on the fire truck or something." Scott said, suggestively before the fox chuckled at the suggestion and replied back to the bear.

"Get real, Fireworks are cooler than a hundred fast rides on a fire truck, just wait till we light one of these off." he replied as he gave Scott the fireworks he was holding before grabbing a box of matches from his pocket, opening it and grabbing one before he started to try and light it.

"Where'd you get matches?" Scott asked, coming over to him as Derek continued to try and light the match.

"My big brother's room. Don't worry, there's nothing to this." he answered, revealing where he got it and reassuring Scott not to worry before he did finally light it, but it lit the rest of the matches as well, catching the whole pack on fire.

"Ouch!" Derek exclaimed as he threw the flaming box away as it started to burn on his hand, but he unknowingly threw it into the box holding the fireworks as he threw away the match he was holding. First, a thin stream of smoke rose up from the box before the fireworks suddenly started sparking, indicating the fuses were lit and were about to go off.

"Look out!" Scott exclaimed, the boys ducking down as the fireworks went off, multicolored blurs shot out of the box and went in all directions.

"Oh, man!" Derek said as Scott followed with "Let's get out of here!" as the boys ran inside the building as the fireworks kept bouncing off the walls of the building and the ground, even starting a few small fires on trash and garbage cans next to the entrance, Derek and Scott nearly out of breath after they got inside.

"Aw man, that was close!" Scott said before one of the fireworks smashed through the small window in the door and started bouncing around, setting fires as the boys ran upstairs into Derek's apartment, Derek looked out the kitchen window at the fireworks bouncing below before one went through the open window and hit the curtain, setting it on fire.

"The curtain's on fire! Put it out!" Derek exclaimed as he dialed 9-1-1 with Scott trying to put the fire out with a broom by whacking the curtains with it, but to no avail and it only caused the broom to catch fire.

"Help, I need the fire department! Hurry!" he exclaimed to 9-1-1 as the apartment continued to burn, smoke quickly rising with soot staining the walls.

_Later on..._

"Check the closet!" Kitty said as she ran through the burning apartment with Sully to the closet at the back end of the wall of the apartment.

"Right!" Sully responded as they put the back of their hands to check for any fires lurking behind doors.

"It's cool." She said as the door opened, Sully's expression turned to slight anger.

"But that's not!" Sully said as what they had found were a scared Scott and Derek, hiding in the closet.

"Hiding in here is one of the worst things you guys could do in fire." Kitty said, reminding the boys why that is a bad idea as the boys quickly ran out.

"We didn't mean it! It was an accident!" Scott exclaimed as he ran into Sully's arms.

"We were playing and the fireworks exploded!" Derek exclaimed, trying to tell Sully and Kitty what happened.

Later...

"Oh, man! My whole building's on fire!" Derek said, exclaiming after Sully and Kitty had gotten the boys out of the burning apartment building.

"These boys say the fire started by accident, Chief." Sully said to Chief Daniels, who was waiting for them at the bottom of the ladder, telling the fire chief what the boys told him and Kitty.

"Because you were playing with these, right?" Chief Daniels responded, revealing one of the burnt-out fireworks and the box containing several from behind his back.

"We found them down near the pier." Scott admitted to Chief Daniels.

"This is why fireworks are illegal, and the kind the fire department does allow are only used by adults! You two are in serious, serious trouble." Chief Daniels said sternly, reminding the boys that fireworks are in fact, illegal and the allowed ones are only used by adults, not kids.

_End Flashback_

The flashback ended as Derek looked at Tyler with a look of remorse, regret and forlorn written on his face.

"What is it?" Tyler asked Derek, noticing the expression written on his face.

"I-...I-...I'm-...I'm the-...the one wh-...who set...that... f-fire. I had lit off a box of fireworks and accidentally set the building on fire, it was stupid and I should have known better, but I didn't mean to do it, me and Scott got six months of community service with the Danger Rangers and was grounded as punishment and I still don't get why he was punished as well as me when he didn't do anything. But what I'm trying to say is...I'm sorry." Derek admitted to Tyler, revealing what he did and apologizing to him.

Tyler had an expression of disbelief once he heard Derek admit to setting the fire as he got up and looked at the fox, Derek awaiting him getting attacked or possibly even killed. Tyler said nothing at first as he continued to process what Derek just said before his expression turned to realization.

"Wait, the Danger Rangers. You mean the ones that have that watch thing on their wrist?" Tyler asked Derek.

"Yeah, I even became a Junior Danger Ranger and earned the watch, but…he smashed it." Derek answered, once he did, a determined look came upon Tyler's face.

"I'm getting you boys out of here." Tyler said adamantly.

"Really?" Scott asked excitedly.

"Yes, I am. But I will have to go directly to the police since Jason took my phone. I'll be back and if Jason gets here before I do, stall him as long as possible." Tyler said, confirming it as he quickly ran out of the room to go to the police directly.

"Can you believe it, Derek? We're gonna be rescued!" Scott exclaimed, ecstatic and happy over the thought of being rescued.

"I know!" Derek replied in the same ecstatic and happy tone as Scott as they awaited for Tyler to come back with help.

After what felt like hours, but was actually about thirty minutes, the boys saw the door open and smiles quickly came to their faces, but quickly went to slight terror as it wasn't Tyler who came in, but Jason, who managed to see them smiling. Jason's face went from a bit of surprise to flustering anger.

"What were you two smiling about?" Jason asked sternly as he approached the two boys.

"N-nothing, sir." Scott quickly answered in a nervous state as Jason got in front of Scott and suddenly punched him across the face, the bear exclaimed out in pain after the punch to the face he had received.

"Scott!" Derek exclaimed as Jason spoke up again, this time in a more angered tone.

"Bull! I saw you both smiling and you know it! Now, I'll ask you again, why were you both smiling!?"

Jason then punched Scott again, the bear screamed out in pain as Derek watched in horror of his friend getting beaten like that.

"Stop it! I'll tell you!" Derek exclaimed, which made the Doberman stop his assault on Scott and go over to Derek, the bear quickly realizing what Derek was going to do.

"Derek, don't do this!" Scott exclaimed, worried about what Derek was about to say to Jason as the fox looked back at his best friend, giving him a reassuring smile.

"You don't deserve this, Scott. Besides, isn't this what friends are for?" Derek replied, reassuring the bear as Jason still was confused about what Scott was implying.

"What are you talking about?" he asked Derek as the fox then took a deep breath and replied to Jason.

"I was the one who set the fire, I accidentally lit off a box of fireworks and it caused it. Scott had nothing to do with it, I was the one who lit the match. You can have me, but let Scott go, he doesn't deserve this." Derek admitted to him as his expression went from shock and realization to anger and rage as he quickly lifted up his shirt and was about to burn him again with the cigarette when he noticed the bandage on Derek's side.

"Who...gave...that...to you!?" Jason said angrily to Derek who replied back with, "Mr. Tauber did this, he told me why you kidnapped me and Scott, I wanted to also apologize to you for what I did, but if anyone should be getting hit, it's me, leave Scott out of this." Jason's expression turned to unyielding rage as he quickly stormed out of the room for about ten minutes before the door opened again and Jason came in with two gas canisters in his hands.

"Is that-...g-gas? What are you going to do with it?" Scott asked in which Jason replied as he took off the lid cap of the first canister.

"What your friend, the murder rightly deserves."

Jason then started to pour the gasoline contents out onto the floor and spread it across the room and on the walls before he cut the zip ties holding Scott's ankles with his knife.

"Ah!" Scott exclaimed in pain as the knife had poked him in the process, Jason then cut the zip ties connecting to the bear's bound wrists and the chair before grabbing Scott's shirt and throwing him onto the ground.

"Scott!" Derek exclaimed as he saw Jason pour the rest of the gasoline onto the chair that Scott had been sitting in and threw the canister to the side. He then grabbed the second one and opened it before proceeding to do the same thing he did with the first one, dousing the floor and the walls with gasoline before running out and throwing the second one off to the side as well.

The entire floor, except a small strip that led to the door was now covered in gasoline as Scott got up and tried to run for the door, but Jason quickly grabbed the bear by the back of his shirt and pinned him down.

"Where do you think you're going?" Jason said as he grabbed zip ties from his back pocket and quickly put them on Scott's ankles and tightening it, Scott thrashed about, trying to break free before Jason took the chloroformed cloth and putting it over Scott's nose and mouth, getting the bear to forcefully calm down before he hoisted the semi-conscious Scott over his shoulder.

"W-What are you going to d-do to me?" Derek asked nervously as Jason reached into his pocket and pulled out a box of matches, he then grabbed one and quickly lit it before replying to Derek as he held the burning match in his hand.

"Consider this your judgment day, murderer. You are going to suffer just like she did as you will slowly be burned alive, do you have any last words?" Jason replied which made Derek's eyes fill with tears and he started crying in fear before replying back to Jason.

"Please! No! Don't! I don't wanna die! Please, don't kill me! Please!" he cried, begging to be spared as Jason gave a disgusted look.

"Begging will get you nowhere, I hope you learn that in the next life. Goodbye, murderer." Jason said to Derek before tossing the lit match towards the gasoline doused chair as he started to leave with the semi-conscious Scott, he opened the door as Scott managed to see Derek's terrified face before blacking out and the door closed, doing so at the same time as the match hitting the chair, setting it ablaze and the fire quickly consumed it as it started to spread across the floor and reached the walls.

Derek started to freak out, crying as he struggled to break free of the bond he was in, but to no avail, as the fox started coughing as smoke started rising to the ceiling and he noticed that outside of the room was burning as well.

"HELP! SOMEBODY HELP ME!" Derek screamed as loud as he could as the fire continued to rage on, threatening the young fox as he continued to scream for help whilst coughing as the flames continued to burn all around him.

**Chicago Police Department station**

**Chicago, Illinois**

**10 minutes later...**

As everyone continued to ponder who the perpetrators were, Tyler came up the stairs, catching everyone's attention.

"Can I help you?" Hank asked Tyler in which he responded as he put his hands out to be handcuffed.

"My name is Tyler Tauber, I would like to turn myself in for the kidnappings of Derek Crevan and Scott Bearonhart. I want to help you all find my son, Jason."

Shock hit everyone quickly, one of the kidnappers was surrendering to them and is going to reveal the location of where Derek and Scott were being held. Hank quickly went up to Tyler after the shock wore off a bit.

"Mr. Tauber, where are the boys?!" Hank exclaimed to Tyler, but as he was about to reveal the address where the boys were being held captive, something happened.

"Danger Alert! Danger Alert!" SAVO exclaimed suddenly, yellow flashes coming to the Rangers' watches as it caught everyone's attention and interrupted Tyler.

"Come on, SAVO! We are about tuh find out where Scott and Derek are, what could be mawh impawhtant than dis?!" Squeaky exclaimed back frustratedly at the AI.

"If you must know, Ranger Rodent, I have just detected a 9-1-1 call from the cellular belonging to our titular kidnapper."

"SAVO, let's hear it." Kitty said, telling the AI to play the recording of the call, which he did.

"9-1-1, what is your emergency?... Hello?" A female operator asked. At first, there was no response, but Jason was heard shortly after in a cold tone of voice, replying to the 9-1-1 operator.

"I want you to give a message in regards to the kidnapping of Derek Crevan and Scott Bearonhart, I have both of the brats with me as hostages at 2020 Jackson Avenue, I have a machine gun and will execute them in thirty minutes unless my demands are met."

Jason then hung up as the call ended, everyone in a state of shock for a few seconds before quickly getting out of it.

"SAVO, put in coordinates for 2020 Jackson Avenue and directions for the fastest route from here!" Sully exclaimed,

"I'm calling in SWAT." Hank said as he picked up his phone to call the CPD's Special Weapons And Tactics or SWAT unit as everyone started headed down the stairs

"I'm going too." Tyler said, catching everyone by surprise as they saw him opting to go with them.

"No, you're not. You are staying right here. Besides, you are still under arrest." Hunter replied, denying Tyler to come along with them.

"But I can probably try and get through to him, I can try and get him to surrender peacefully, so you don't have to worry about the boys getting caught in the crossfire." Tyler added, giving his reasoning as to why he wanted to tag along.

Hunter seemed to think about it for about a minute or two before replying back to Tyler.

"Are you sure you will be able to get through to your son?" Hunter asked Tyler with the Doberman answering the tiger's question.

"I think so." Tyler answered as Hunter again started to think about it again before coming to a conclusion.

"Fine, you can come. But you will stay in the car, I'll put some handcuffs on you to make sure you don't try any funny business, and you'll be brought out as a last resort." Hunter said to Tyler before everyone ran quickly down the stairs and into their vehicles to go to where Jason and the boys were with Hunter handcuffing Tyler and putting him in the back of one of the vehicles. But unbeknownst to them, Derek wasn't with Jason and was already in danger.

**Chapter 4, coming soon**

**Prwtfalcon6**

**Review**

**AN: I am so sorry this took so long, I blame writer's block and my own negligence for this. Also, I would like to tell all fans and followers of my Danger Rangers fanfiction to please go and follow the DR fanfiction update fic because I will be putting a new list of future DR fanfics I have planned after this one.**


	4. Chapter 4: Standoff

**Chapter 4**

**2020 Riverside Drive**

**Chicago, Illinois**

Inside the abandoned building that resembled an airplane hangar with only two metal grey doors in the front, Jason held Scott in an armlock with a gun pointed at the bear's head, still clearly upset over what Jason had done as tears continued to flow down his face.

"Stop your crying, no one is going to miss that murderer anyway." Jason said coldly to Scott as they heard approaching sirens.

The black SUV's and CPD cruisers arrived in front of the building with lights flashing and the sirens stopping as officers, the agents, and the Danger Rangers got out.

Arriving also with the black SUV's of the agents was a grey four-wheeled armored personnel carrier with a black ramp-like device with the letters _OSR_ on it in white bold lettering. The vehicle notably had no doors and where it should be was and on the back of the vehicle was the logo of the CPD Special Weapons And Tactics which was a shield with the words _SWAT_ and _Special Weapons and Tactics_ on it and in the middle of the shield was the star logo of the police department, near the back on both sides, were the words _CHICAGO POLICE_ in black and next to it was the flag of Chicago, the black substituting for the red and the grey substituting for the white portions of the flag.

The back door opened and out came the SWAT team of the Chicago Police Department, dressed in camo green tactical gear and helmet, they are armed with a mixture of submachine and assault weapons.

As the officers and SWAT positioned themselves, one came up to the arriving force. It was a male Irish Wolfhound, about as tall as Sully in height, grey fur, and wearing the same gear the other members were wearing.

"Hank." the Irish Wolfhound said to the panther.

"Xavier." Hank replied, revealing his name to everyone else as the two smiled at each other before turning towards the group.

"Everyone, this is Sergeant Xavier Faol, field commander of the SWAT team. Sergeant, these are FBI Special Agents Stripes, Malines, Lobo, Spots, and Lowell. Then there's ATF Special Agents Tatara, Liron, and Boback. And finally, the Danger Rangers, Ranger Sully, Ranger Kitty, Ranger Burble, Ranger Burt, Rangers Squeaky, and Ranger Gabriela." Hank said to everyone, introducing both sides as everyone gave a slight wave or gesture of greeting as their names were called.

"It is nice to meet you all, but I am afraid we don't have the time for formal introductions. We have a problem." Xavier responded.

"What is it?" Hank asked.

"The negotiator called in sick this morning and the one from the county sheriff is currently unavailable, also, the building's windows are way too high to be reached, so we don't know what's going on inside." Xavier answered.

"So, what are we going to do?" Jeremy asked.

"Well, we're going to try and get him via his phone. Does anyone know the number?" Xavier answered before asking about the number to Jason's phone.

"I do, I can also serve as the negotiator, I have had training." Hunter said as he told Xavier the number, the Irish wolfhound dialing the numbers.

Inside the building, Jason's phone rang. The Doberman moved the gun away from Scott's head to pick up his phone after putting the said gun in his waistband.

"Hello?" Jason said after he pressed the answer button and put the phone up to his ear.

"Jason Tauber, my name is Special Agent Stripes, I'm with the FBI. We all want to end this peacefully, so whatever you need, we can try and get it for you."

"There's nothing that you can give me that will satisfy me, but you can grant me a request. I heard that the Danger Rangers were involved in this case, so why don't you send one of them in or I'll kill both of these brats right here and now! You have 5 minutes to decide. Call me back for your decision." Jason replied, threatening to kill Scott if his demands aren't met as he hung up, the Doberman pulling the gun out of his waistband and pointing it back at Scott.

"We are not doing that! Sergeant Faol, get your team ready to go in!" Hunter said with Xavier getting ready to send in SWAT before Sully spoke up.

"I'll do it."

"Pardon, Ranger Sully?" Hunter asked, confused.

"I'll go inside and try to talk to Jason, maybe I can get him to surrender or at the very least, release the boys." Sully replied, giving his reasoning.

"Sully, are you sure about this?" Kitty asked, a worried tone in her voice.

"I'm positive, Kitty. Sergeant Faol, you're the field commander, what do you think?" Sully replied and asked Xavier, the SWAT field commander expressing concern as he replied back.

"Ranger Sully, I'm not sure about this. Do you think you can get through to him?"

"Sergeant Faol, I know what Jason is going through. I think I will be able to." Sully answered.

"Alright, Ranger Sully. We'll try it your way, but you're putting on a vest and I'll have SWAT officers nearby. I'd rather not have you die today." Xavier responded, giving in but on the condition that Sully wears a kevlar vest and SWAT be positioned nearby.

"Okay, Sergeant." Sully said back.

* * *

Later on, as Sully put on a CPD bulletproof vest, Kitty walked up to him, an expression of concern written on her face. The sea lion took notice as he turned to her.

"Hey, are you okay?" Sully asked her as he finished putting on the vest.

"I-...I just want to tell you to be careful, Sully. I don't want you to get yourself killed." Kitty replied, expressing concern for Sully.

"Don't worry, I'll be careful." Sully responded back to her as the other Rangers came up to the two.

"Be careful, Sully. You don't know what he's capable of." Burble said, also expressing concern for Sully as Squeaky spoke up, expressing his concerns as well.

"I agree wit' de big guy, de mook said he has a machine gun! If dat's not askin' fawh a massacre tuh happen, I don't know what is."

"And we don't know the type of gun he's using, that vest can only stop handgun rounds, there are bullets out there that can go right through it." GB added, giving her views.

"It also could be a trap. We don't know what nor who's inside." Burt added as well before Kitty spoke.

"Sully, we're just worried about what could happen in there, plus your breakdown yesterday is making us concerned that you might try and get yourself killed." she said, explaining the reasons for the concerns of her and the other Rangers.

"I-...Uh-...Wha-...Bu-..." Sully stammered, a bit shocked at the reasoning the Rangers gave him, he felt like he'd been insulted. He quickly calmed down as he let out an exhaling breath before turning to the Rangers, his expression conveying sympathy which gave the other Rangers the wrong idea.

"Sully, yuh bettuh not be tinkin' what I tink yuh're tinkin'! Yuh are not, and I repeat, NOT gonna get yawhself killed in dere! Yuh hear me!?" Squeaky exclaimed, getting a bit flustered at Sully.

"It's not that, it's just… I-... I don't want to go through what I did yesterday and last night! I want to make sure that those boys make it out of this alive even if I don't! I will not allow either of them to end up dead like Ricky! I-...I-... I honestly don't know what I'd do. My mind is at a crossroads right now. I have thought about it last night."

"But Sully, we said we would be here for you like Kitty said, you don't have to go through what you're going through alone." GB replied.

"And you don't have to blame yourself for Ricky's death, it was out of your control. Sully, we can't be everywhere for all the world's disasters and safety hazards, but we can do our best, and that's all that matters." Kitty added as she came up to him and held his right hand in a comforting manner, Sully gave a smile back at her as Xavier came up to the Rangers.

"Ranger Sully, we're ready." Xavier said to Sully as the sea lion turned to the Irish Wolfhound.

"Okay. Thank you." Sully replied, thanking Xavier before turning back to Kitty.

"Just promise me you'll be careful, okay?" she said.

"I promise, Kitty." Sully replied, promising her as she let go of the sea lion's hands, Sully starting to head towards the building with a four-man team of SWAT officers following behind.

"Alright, Jason. We're sending one of the Danger Rangers in, he's unarmed." Hunter said to Jason after calling him back.

"Good." Jason replied before hanging up again.

As Sully continued on towards the building, he lifted his arm and spoke to SAVO.

"SAVO, start recording, but keep silent." Sully said to the AI, SAVO replying only with a beep and a flash.

"Testing. Testing. One, two, three." he said into SAVO like a mic test before turning around, Hunter giving him a thumbs-up as Sully approached the door along with the SWAT officers.

He then slowly grabbed the door handle and slowly turned it before slowly opening the door slightly and enough so that he could get inside and the SWAT officers could not be seen to try and not spook Jason as they fell back. Sully slowly took one step inside, then another, then another, until he was inside and slowly closed the door.

He was now facing the primary kidnapper. Jason quickly pointed the gun away from Scott and aimed it at Sully, Scott turned his head once the gun had left from the side of his head and once he saw Sully, his expression turned to joy as a smile came upon his face.

"Ranger Sully!" Scott exclaimed happily at seeing the Danger Ranger walk into the building to possibly rescue him.

"Jason, I'm Ranger Sully of the Danger Rangers. I-..." Sully started to say before Jason interrupted him.

"I know who you are. I knew who you were before you even came in here. So they sent you in here, I thought it would be some cop or a fed."

"And I thought you had both boys with you and you had a machine gun pointed at them, I can clearly see that's not the case. You only have a handgun and only Scott with you, as I recall, you kidnapped two boys, so where is he, Jason?" Sully responded, getting serious in his tone of voice.

Jason said nothing at first as he continued to aim the gun at Sully. Outside, everyone listening in heard what Sully had said, which meant that Derek was still out there, they just had to figure out where, as they continued listening in as Jason finally spoke back.

"Just put your hands up, keep them that way, and get over there, against the front wall." Jason said to Sully as the sea lion complied by putting his hands up and the Doberman gestured to Sully with the gun until he was against the front wall.

"Don't move. If you do, I will have to kill you." Jason told Sully as Scott tried to speak up, but Jason quickly covered his mouth and the gun was aimed back at his head.

"Ranger Sully! D-MPH!"

"You stay quiet...or I pull the trigger." Jason coldly said to Scott, threatening him as Sully's and Jason's conversation began.

"Jason, I said, where's Derek?"

"That isn't any of your concern right now, Ranger Sully. What you should be concerned about is whether he lives or dies, decide whether or not his blood will be on your hands!"

"Jason, please. This isn't something you should do."

"Oh? And why not? Because it's morally wrong? Sorry, but my morality died when that piece of filth decided to set that fire that took her life. So I returned the favor. I made sure he felt the pain I did, I made sure to slug both of them multiple times to inflict the amount of pain I went through. I even burned that sack of garbage with a cigarette, so he can feel what it's like to be burned! It doesn't matter what you think, Ranger Sully… the ends justify the means."

The ones listening in from outside were horrified at what Jason had said he had done to Derek and Scott. Kitty, GB, and Burble expressions of horror were present as one of their hands were covering their mouths, Burt was shocked and horrified as his mouth hanged agape, Squeaky's expression turned to anger very quickly along with Hunter and Xavier, the rest of the party that had been listening in were shocked and horrified as well, having an expression similar to that of Burt's.

Sully couldn't believe what he had just heard Jason said, his eyes had widened in shock and horror, he nearly couldn't bring himself to words as he was able to finally speak up.

"How-... How could you do that and think it's right?!"

"This is the justice that I rightly deserve! The system failed in delivering that, so if they won't deliver justice for her, I should! And don't think our innocent either, Ranger Sully! When I saw he had that thing you have on your wrist, it was clear to me that you rewarded him! You rewarded him for murdering my mother!"

"Jason, that's not what happened. The boys were punished for what they did, but they learned their lesson. I and the other Rangers were the ones to do this."

"I don't believe you."

"Jason, please. Listen to me, I-..." Sully started to say before Jason cut him off and said this to him.

"Why should I listen to you? You don't know anything about me. You would never know the pain that I went through. You would never understand."

"Jason, I know what you're going through." Sully replied.

"How!? How can you know what I'm going through? You would never know what it's like to lose someone you care about!" Jason exclaimed back.

"I do… we all do." Sully said to him, which caught Jason's attention as Sully explained to him what he meant while the Rangers and Agents listened on.

"We all feel the tragedy of losing someone close to us, I lost my mother when I was a child, I also felt the feeling when I saw a child die, and I couldn't do anything about it. What I'm trying to say is that I know what it is like to lose someone, especially if it's someone close to you like family."

Jason started to tremble in resentfulness as tears started to stream down his face,

"Jason, please. Let Scott go, killing him won't change anything. What happened to your mother was tragic, but she wouldn't have wanted you to do this!" Sully pleaded to Jason, the Doberman didn't reply at first as he was still in a bitter state, he continued to tremble as tears continued to stream down his face before he lowered the gun and loosened his grip on Scott, letting the bear drop to the ground onto his feet.

Scott quickly started running towards Sully, the sea lion waiting for the bear to get him to safety and back to his parents, he also saw Jason with his head down in defeat before the Doberman suddenly shot up his arm in one swift motion and aimed the firearm at Scott, intending to kill him

"NO!" Sully exclaimed as he dashed towards Jason, without hesitation. He grabbed onto the gun and pushed it up towards the ceiling while the Doberman still had his grip on it and the trigger, squeezing it before suddenly...

'_BANG!_'

"Sully! Scott!" Kitty cried out as the gun went off again and again as Sully and Jason continued to tussle for the gun, some of the bullets bouncing off the ground due to the angle of how the gun was positioned.

'_BANG!_' '_BANG!_' '_BANG!_' '_BANG!_' '_BANG!_' '_BANG!_' '_BANG!_'

"Go! Go! Go!" Xavier commanded the SWAT team as the shots rang out, the SWAT team arrived at the left side door with their guns drawn and one holding a battering ram, positioned to force the door open.

While that was going on, Sully and Jason continued tussling before the sea lion was kicked back by the Doberman, Jason then aimed his weapon at the two, intending to deliver the killing shot to either of them, he pulled the trigger.

'_Click._'

The gun was out of bullets, Jason growled in anger before a loud '_WHAM!_' caught the attention of the three.

"Chicago Police! Hands in the air! Get on the ground!" the SWAT officers exclaimed and yelled after busting down the left side door, Jason quickly sprinted towards the right side door.

"He's heading towards the door!" exclaimed one of the SWAT officers as Jason reached the door and opened it, getting out of the building before he suddenly came face to face with a white-furred right arm, sending him to the ground.

It was Burble who the arm belonged to, the polar bear stopped Jason by extending out his right arm and then grabbing onto the Doberman's arms before sending them both to the ground, Burble holding down Jason with one of his knees on his lower back and holding onto his arms behind said back while the Doberman struggled.

Kitty was about to run into the building with tears welling up in her eyes when she saw Sully and Scott come out with the SWAT officers.

"Are you both okay?" Kitty asked the two as she went up to them.

"We're fine, Kitty." Sully answered as Hunter and Hank came up to Burble and Jason, the two holding onto Jason's arms as the polar bear was given handcuffs before putting them on the Doberman's wrists, Burble got off of him and the two agents let go of Jason's arms as the bear hoisted the Doberman up to his feet before giving him to Hunter and Hank.

"Would you like to do the honors, Agent Stripes?" Burble asked the FBI agent.

"Gladly, Ranger Burble. Jason Tauber, you are under arrest for the kidnapping of Derek Crevan and Scott Bearonhart, the attempted murder of Nicholas Crevan, arson, torture, and criminally negligent manslaughter. You have the right to remain silent, anything you say can and will be used against you in a court of law, you have-." Hunter replied, taking custody of Jason whilst reading his Miranda Rights as Scott overheard what Hunter just said.

"Wait, attempted murder? Does that mean Mr. Crevan is alive?!" he asked, asking about the condition of Nicholas.

"Yes, he is. But Scott, we need to know where you were taken so we can find Derek. Do you know where Derek is?" Sully answered, although he switched topics and asked where Derek was before Jason spoke up.

"Save it, you'll never find him, I'm delivering the justice he so rightly deserves." Jason said as he was being taken to a police cruiser.

"Wait, what do you mean by that? What did you do?!" Sully asked and exclaimed angrily after hearing what Jason had said and gone over to him, stopping Hunter and Hank from putting him into the cruiser.

"He set where we were on fire! Derek's still inside!" Scott exclaimed which made everyone turn their heads toward Scott and their eyes widening with the expression of shock and horror written on their faces. But just as quickly, Sully's expression turned to rage and anger as he turned back to Jason.

"Where...is...he? WHERE IS DEREK!? WHERE DID YOU KEEP THEM!?" Sully menacingly said at first before screaming in rage at Jason before the Doberman suddenly spat at Sully, the saliva projectile hitting his cheek before replying to the sea lion.

"Go eat a-"

"And now I can add assaulting a federal officer to your list of charges, come on! Put a spit mask on him!" Hunter said, stopping Jason from uttering the profane word as he and Hank continued walking the Doberman towards one of the CPD cruisers and put him in the back as Jason started to rant as he was led to the cruiser while a CPD officer put a spit mask over his muzzle.

"There's not a jury in the world that will convict me! I will make sure those Danger Rangers get their just due, you hear me!? You all are going to get the justice that he will! I'll make sure of it! You all are going to-...!"

A loud '_SLAM!'_ of the door interrupted his rant as muffled yelling was heard from the car.

"Scott, do you know where you were kept?" Sully asked as he turned to the bear with tears starting to fill in his eyes.

Scott shook his head no as tears started to stream down his face, Sully wiped off the saliva from his face before heading over to the vehicle where Tyler was being held in and opened the door.

"Mr. Tauber, we need the address of where the boys were held now! Scott told us Jason set it on fire with Derek still inside!" Sully said, demanding the address from Tyler.

"What?! 3458 Chicago Drive, it was an old restaurant! I don't remember the name, but the boys were kept in the backroom freezer! I beg you, Ranger Sully! Save him!" he quickly replied, shocked at the revelation of what Jason did.

"Thank you, Mr. Tauber." Sully thanked Tyler as he closed the door before heading over to the group that had formed while Sully was talking to Tyler.

"3458 Chicago Drive! That's where Derek is! SAVO, activate the Hovercraft's auto-pilot and get here now! Call the Fire Department and the Paramedics!" Sully said to everyone before giving the command to the AI.

"Ranger Sully, the Hovercraft is on its way and both emergency responders have been called and are on their way." SAVO responded, answering Sully's command.

"Thanks, SAVO." Sully replied, thanking the AI as Hank came up to him with Scott.

"Ranger Sully, I'm taking Scott to Chicago General and have him checked out, his parents have already been contacted, they're on their way." Hank said to the sea lion

"Thank you, Sergeant Panmann." Sully thanked Hank before Scott spoke up.

"You have to save Derek, please! He's my best friend!" Scott said, pleading to Sully to save Derek.

"We'll do all we can, Scott. Don't worry, what you need to do right now is go with Sergeant Panmann to get the doctors to look at you and reunite you with your parents. They're really worried about you." Sully replied, trying to assure the bear to not worry as they saw the Hovercraft suddenly appear, hovering over the scene.

"But, Ranger Sully. What about Derek's family? What if-...if he dies? W-Wha-..." Scott responded, starting to get distraught over the possibility of Derek dying as tears started streaming down his face again.

"Scott. Scott. Don't think that way, there's still hope. Cling onto that." Sully said to him, trying to stop the bear from crying, it does help as Scott wipes the tears from his face and eyes.

"Okay, Ranger Sully. I will." Scott replied.

"Good, I'm glad to hear that." Sully responded before Hank and Scott went over to the vehicle that Hank had driven to the scene and got in before driving away, the SWAT truck following behind after they all got back inside their vehicle, Christopher and Everett with Kaite and Adam got into their vehicles with the one the FBI agents got into is where Tyler was held left the scene as well. Once they left, a few CPD cruisers, including the one holding Jason left as the Hovercraft landed near the scene and the ramp came down.

The Rangers sprinted to their aircraft and headed up the ramp to get inside, said ramp going back up as the Rangers got ready to head to the cockpit to lift off when SAVO suddenly beeped and lit up.

"Danger Alert! Danger Alert!" SAVO exclaimed, the Rangers a bit confused.

"What is it, SAVO?" Sully asked.

"It's terrible, Ranger Sully! There has been an accident that is delaying the fire department and ambulance from getting to the scene, another firetruck has been called, but they are 10 minutes from the scene!" the AI explained, the Rangers' eyes widened at what SAVO had said.

"Everyone, put on your turnout gear! I don't care if it isn't clean, just get it on now! We need to hurry!" Sully exclaimed, telling everyone to put on their firefighting gear before Burt spoke up.

"Sully, the turnout gear is clean, thanks to my latest invention, the cleangear."

"He's right, Sully. They are clean." Kitty said after the other Rangers, sans Burt and Sully were getting ready to put on the gear.

Sully went over to where the turnout gear was stored as the Rangers continued putting them on, the sea lion touched the right sleeve and it felt like it had been cleaned, like if the fire last night didn't happen.

Sully then put on the jacket to see if it was clean, he was right, it was. Sully gave a small smile before turning to Burt, his smile disappearing just as quickly.

"Thanks, Burt. Now let's go!" Sully responded, thanking Burt as he got on the rest of the gear along with the rest of the Rangers before they headed up to the cockpit, the Hovercraft lifting and taking off shortly thereafter.

**Meanwhile at 3458 Chicago Drive…**

As the flames continued to burn inside the abandoned diner and inside the freezer, tear droplets continued to hit the ground, letting off steam once it did.

Derek was now slouched over in the chair, being hardly able to breathe as his breaths were ragged and a few coughs came out, the heat was only making things worse, the fox's eyes were halfway open, he was trying his best to keep them open, but to no avail, as tears continued to stream down his face.

"H-...Help…Some-...-body...A-...Any-...Anybody, p-...ple-...please…" Derek weakly managed to get out through the ragged breathing and coughing, images of his parents, Nicholas when he was stabbed, Casey, a picture of Darren in his dress uniform, and Ranger Kitty blowing out the candles at her birthday bash he threw for her flashed in his mind through his point of view.

Derek's eyes were nearly closed but continued to try to stay open as he was able to give out one word.

"Help…"

His eyes closed shut.

**Chapter 5, coming soon**

**Prwtfalcon6**

**Review**


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